The Love Bug
by Lahdolphin
Summary: There are things in life you just shouldn't do. Like steal your roommates' pants. What Atobe did was far worse; he fell in love with his best friend. AKA: the cliché of all clichés.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis nor do I own a companies, food chains, books, movies, songs, etc… mentioned in this fic. I am by no means profiting from writing this piece. I will not post a disclaimer every chapter– I will never own anything.**

**Warning: This fic will contain shonen-ai (AKA – light male/male), spoilers to the ending of the series, sexual themes and vague content, obscene language, violence, alcohol usage, abuse, mentions of death, etc … **

**Note: This is a re-write of my old story **_**Love's Weird Like That **_**(which may or may not be deleted – I haven't decided yet)**_**.**_

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**1.**

Atobe Keigo was not okay.

He wanted to sucker punch or bitch slap the next person who called out "Atobe-sama" or "Yo, Atobe, I can't believe you lost to a rookie!" He was sick of girls squealing over him – he was not a piece of meat – and he was definitely sick of hearing about that stupid Seigaku brat from stupid Seigaku on that stupid tennis team that won stupid Nationals.

He was one second away from snapping when he stormed into the locker-room. The second he opened up his locker, he was just glad that the day would be uneventful and nothing interesting would –

"Atobe!"

Atobe cursed mentally, refusing to allow such a profanity escape his lips. He turned around, trying to resist the urge to punch whoever called his name. However, he had no intentions of hurting the person when he recognized who it was.

"Yes, Jirou?" Atobe asked, turning to face his locker once again. He loosened his tie before he pulled his shirt and tie over his head. Jirou didn't say anything. Atobe balled up his tie in his school shirt, tossed it not-so-gently into his locker, then looked back at Jirou. "What is it, Jirou?"

The blonde tore his eyes off of Atobe's chest and up to his eyes. Then he remembered what he was so excited about, and began to bounce up and down with joy (literally). "Sakaki-sensei wants to meet you in his office!"

"Is there something else?" Jirou would never get excited over Sakaki wanting to talk to someone, would he? Jirou had always been a little on the odd side…

Jirou nodded, grinning. "Rikkaidai and Seigaku are outside!"

"Marui as well?" Jirou nodded. "I see…"

And, as if Sakaki wanting to talk to him, and stupid Seigaku and retarded Rikkaidai being outside wasn't enough to ruin his plans for the afternoon, Oshitari asked, "Why are they here?"

That bastard just _had_ to open his mouth.

Jirou shrugged. "I don't know!"

Atobe put a firm hand on Jirou's shoulder, keeping the boy from bouncing through the roof. "Tell Sakaki-sensei I will be there in a moment."

Jirou shook his head, his cheeks turning red as Atobe moved his hand away. "He said he wants to talk to you now."

"I'm half naked," he pointed out.

"I can see that," Jirou said softly, his cheeks flaming red. "But he said to send you in even if Oshitari grew tentacles and raped you."

"Now there's an interesting thought," Oshitari snickered.

Atobe glared at him, but then looked back at Jirou with a softened expression. "Thank you." He ruffled the blonde's hair, then turned on the soles of his shoes and headed down the rows of lockers towards Sakaki's office door. The people in his way put their backs up against their lockers, like he was a god walking by. The imbeciles probably thought he was a god – this school's academics were seriously lacking.

Atobe knocked on the door and heard a soft "come in" from the other side, so he went ahead and opened the door.

"You wished to see me?"

Sakaki didn't even bother to look up from his paper work as he pointed to a large leather chair in front of his desk. The captain sat in the large seat, patiently waiting for what seemed like forever until his coach stopped writing just to look at him with the same bland, stern face.

"I would like for you to allow Seigaku, Rikkaidai and our own team to use one of your cabins for bonding exercises."

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "You would like?" Sakaki never asked, he demanded. He would always assume that Atobe could whip up a cabin out of nowhere. "May I ask what sort of exercises and whose idea it was to hold said exercises?"

Atobe watched the music teacher fold his arms and swirl in his chair like he owned the world. Sakaki stopped his chair, looking out the window that was behind his desk. Atobe could imagine what Sakaki's aging face looked like – pissed.

"Ryuzaki is rather upset with me at the moment."

"Did you make another remark about her granddaughter – Sakuno-chan, was it? – being a piece of eye candy?" Atobe spoke without thinking, and then realized what he had just said.

Sakaki turned his chair back around, sending daggers at Atobe. "Remember you place, Atobe. I am your coach and you are only captain because I can use your father's money to sort out problems with this team. If I had been in my right mind, I would have chosen Oshitari for captain. I regret choosing you every day of this awful job!"

Atobe nodded, already knowing that was coming.

"Well," Sakaki looked him up and down before turning his chair once again, "I will forgive you this one last time. Now, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, Ryuzaki is rather upset with me at the moment and she suggested that we arrange a camp for our regulars. It seems the tension between our schools, as well as Rikkaidai Fuzoku, has escalated since Seigaku's win at Nationals.

"So, after some thought, I gladly accepted her offer because it's good to have pleasant relationships with enemies. As I always say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Anyways, I am in need of a cabin. I'm sure you can arrange this with your… connections."

Atobe nodded. "Where would you like this cabin to be? Near the beach, the mountains, _out of the country?"_

"Watch your tone!" Sakaki waited a minute before continuing. "I would prefer one in the mountains, something secluded, but it must be close enough so that I can reach you if I need you."

_You mean, if you need money,_ Atobe thought.

"I will make the necessary arrangements, please give me a moment," Atobe said before Sakaki could chomp his head off. He stood up and quickly exited the room like it was being filled with lava. He reached into his pockets, pulled out one of his many phones, and hit a speed dial – 666.

"Keigo?" the man on the other line asked. Atobe closed his eyes in anticipation. "Where are you? You said you would skip that foolish tennis practice and come to a meeting!"

Atobe hated his father's voice, it was like the plague. "Father, I'm sorry, but Sakaki-sensei has asked another favor of me."

"Favor? Favor?" He was yelling. Already. "If you like him so much, why don't you ask him for your private tennis lessons? You're a waste of money, you know that? Why couldn't I have a decent son?"

Click.

Atobe sighed, snapping his phone shut as he struggled with the urge to throw it across the room. He could do that, but then the team would think he was having another mental break down. Then there would be an intervention and he would need to see a doctor, and stupid Seigaku and retarded Rikkaidai would stick their noses into everything.

Instead of acting like Fudomine (Oshitari called them "savages"), Atobe calmly opened his phone back up and scrolled down his contacts. He tapped his foot against the locker room tile. People began to look at him, but they stopped staring with one long, hateful glare from the heir.

When the phone stopped ringing, there was a pause before Atobe heard, "Keigo?"

"Yes, Auntie."

A few people looked back at Atobe when he said "Auntie." Atobe just kept on glaring. He had an aunt; he didn't understand what the big deal was. Did the idiots think he was bred in a lab?

"Keigo!" his aunt exclaimed. "How are you? I haven't seen or heard from you since, oh my, how long has it been?"

"Too long," he said, actually smiling. Now half the locker room was staring. He stopped smiling, but that only made more people stare. "I hate to ask this of you, but I need a favor."

There was a pause.

"Sorry, I'm with your mother and a nurse just walked in." Atobe held his breath. "Do you want to talk to her?"

"No!" Atobe practically yelled. Well, "practically" was an understatement. Anyone who wasn't staring was now. Atobe wished he had more eyes so he could glare at all of them.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "I guess you're still not okay with her… condition. I didn't know." She let out a deep breath. "Now, what kind of a favor is this?"

"Do you remember the cabin that belonged to your mother –"

"It's okay to say 'Grandmother,' Keigo," she cut in.

Atobe closed his eyes and used his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Do you remember the cabin up in the mountains, the one I spent my summers at when I was visiting from England?"

She laughed. "Always so serious, Keigo. And, if you're talking about the ski lodge then, yes, I do remember it. How could I forget the summers we spent up there with Megumi-chan and Munehiro-kun?" She kept rambling on, going on about fireworks and the Firefly Festival that they held in the small town at the base of the mountains. "Oh my! I do ramble! I must be getting old."

"You're no older than my father."

"I am by fifteen minutes." His aunt sounded proud. "About the cabin… do you need to borrow it?"

"Yes, but only for a week or two. But could you not tell my father?"

He heard her laugh. "Oh, don't worry about that! I won't tell your father. I know how my brother can be sometimes. I did grow up with him after all! I'll tell the workers up there to prepare for your arrival. How many are coming this time? Just you and your friends? Or perhaps you have a girl?"

"No, I do not have 'a girl,'" he said, leaning up against the wall. The wall was cool against his bare back, causing him to have a noticeable shiver. "It's just my team and two others. The total number of _boys_ is twenty five. Does the cabin hold that many – I know it's used as a ski lodge in the winter, but I don't recall that many people there. I can't recall much about it, actually. I haven't been up there since I was… seven?"

She hummed, thinking. "I just had some construction done a few months ago, and now there are over thirty suites. Would be okay for you to share suites? There are several suites with multiple bedrooms, and –"

Atobe cut in with, "That is more than enough room."

"Okay, I'll call the staff in a moment to tell them of your arrival."

"Thank you. Ciao."

"Ciao!"

Atobe closed his phone then walked back into Sakaki's office to face Satan.

"I think we're going camping," Mukahi mumbled.

"Way to go, Nancy Drew," Shishido said. "You have the IQ of a Seigaku regular."

Jirou ignored his bickering friends, and went back to changing instead of talking about the camping trip, hoping that no one realized his face was red from staring at Atobe's chest.

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**A/N: The first three or so chapters are pretty boring, but this isn't your average falling-in-love-overnight story. It gets better, I promise, and these first few chapters are really important.**


	2. Chapter 2

**2.**

The Devil was probably Sakaki's bitch.

All the man did was ship the boys away to some unknown location with no idea of how long they'd be gone. Sometimes, Atobe thought that all Sakaki wanted to do was ship the rich kids away and stick them in a cabin until someone committed murder.

"Atobe," Oshitari said as he walked up from the back of the bus up to Atobe who was sitting behind the driver.

Atobe made a noise, but didn't look away from his laptop screen.

Oshitai was used to this – Atobe being busy that is. He always had something to do; preparing for high school entrance exams, student council business, tennis club business, and his father. Oshitari always wondered how different his and Atobe's relationship would be if Atobe just closed his laptop for five seconds. But it was no time to dawdle on the past because they both knew their "relationship" was purely physical.

"Everyone is on, and their parents have been notified so they've begun to pack their necessities to be shipped tomorrow," Oshitari said.

Atobe held up one finger and finished the new class room policy proposal he was working on, then looked up at Oshitari and nodded. He quickly went back to his laptop after telling the driver to begin their trip. Oshitari sighed as he made his way back to his seat.

"Hey, Yuushi."

The blue haired tensai looked to his left and smiled at the sight of the petit, red headed acrobat staring out the window. Oshitari sat down next to him and smiled. "Yes, Gakuto?"

"Do you still love him?" Mukahi sounded bored, boarder line tired.

Oshitari just blinked in shock. "I'm sorry, love _who_?"

Mukahi looked at him before letting out a heavy sigh. "You know who. Atobe. Do you still love him?"

"No." Okay, so it wasn't a complete lie. He didn't love Atobe, but he did think about him from time to time when he was with Mukahi. "Why would you think that?"

Mukahi pulled his knees into his chest. "You're always talking about him. You spend more time wondering if he's okay than you do if I don't stick my landing. And when you're kissing me, I swear I hear his name."

"Listen, I only worry about Atobe because he's our captain and he is constantly working. I just don't want him to keel over before graduation because that means I'll need to do the paper work for picking next year's captain instead of spend time with you." Oshitari saw Mukahi's thin lips twitch into a small smile. "And the whole kissing thing, why would I want to say his name when I'm French-ing the sexist acrobat on the planet?"

Mukahi laughed softly and untucked his knees. "Okay. Just… please don't talk about Atobe as much; it'll make me feel a lot better."

Oshitari kissed his forehead. "Of course, Gakuto."

.

Behind Mukahi and Oshitari, Hiyoshi was sitting alone. Shishido and Ohtori were in the seat across from the solemn second year, and since they got on the bus Shishido had been teasing Hiyoshi.

"You still get car sick?" Shishido asked, laughing. "What are you, two? Seriously, what kid is afraid of riding on a bus?"

Ohtori tried to stop him, but Hiyoshi didn't seem to care. He just put his headphones in his ears, and then turned his back towards the window. His eyes were locked on Ohtori, as if he was telling him not to say something, but Shishido didn't seem to notice, or care, as he continued to tease the second year who only wanted to sleep.

.

A few seats up, Marui and Jackal were sitting in the same seat, one headphone in each of their respectful ears, as they bobbed their heads to the beat. Akaya, who was sitting behind them, sat up and tapped Marui's shoulder. The red head, as if he had been shot in the ass, turned around, snapping the headphone out of Jackal's ear.

"Ow," the Brazilian boy mumbled, rubbing his ear. Marui ignored him, so Jackal just sighed and tuned into whatever Akaya and Marui were talking about.

"Do you think we'll have assigned rooms?" Akaya asked.

Marui thought about it for a second. "I doubt it. Last time that happened, Mukahi and Kikumaru got into a fist fight."

Akaya's apple green eyes went large. "No way! Kikumaru got into a fight?"

Said acrobat was sitting in the seat adjacent to Marui and Jackal with Oishi right by his side. He immediately turned around, grabbing the back of his seat in a dramatic fashion.

"Oi, oi!" He was practically shouting. "He threw the first punch! I was merely protecting myself!"

"Eiji, you broke his nose," Oishi reminded him.

But, just like Marui and Akaya ignored Jackal, they ignored Eiji and Oishi.

Marui was smiling, Akaya was laughing, and Jackal wanted to vomit – Marui couldn't take his eyes off their kohai. A monkey could tell you what was going on.

.

Tezuka was sitting by himself, naturally, with Sanada in the seat in the aisle across him. The two were casually talking, but it was enough for Yukimura to take notice. He was sitting right behind Sanada, after all, and did listen to Sanada's private conversations without thinking (sometimes).

"What about the teachers?" Sanada asked with a curious tone in his question. "Are they any good?"

Tezuka nodded as he spoke. "I believe they just hired a new mathematics teacher, so I can't speak for them, but the others are fantastic. I know of one teacher who…"

And Yukimura zoned out, already knowing what it was about, and didn't want to listen to Sanada anymore.

"Ne," Yukimura heard. He turned and saw Fuji who was sitting behind Tezuka. "Look," the tensai said, flicking Tezuka's ear.

Tezuka gave Fuji a stop-it look, then immediately went back to his conversation. Fuji chuckled, amused at his friend's personality. Yukimura, however, didn't seem to get it. But the tensai's grin never left his face, at least not until Yukimura turned to stare out the window. That's when Fuji frowned.

.

"I'm bored."

It's was Niou's random statement to Yagyuu that sparked Eiji's, Marui's, Akaya's, and everyone else's attention.

"Let's play a bus game," the trickster said. He was sitting next to Yagyuu, but didn't really seem to pay much attention to his four-eyed partner.

"I want to play a game! Oiiiishi! Wake up! Let's play a game!" Eiji shouted, shaking his partner.

Hiyoshi grumbled something about them shutting the hell up, but he was too far back for anyone besides Mukahi to hear. The Hyotei acrobat snickered, turned around, and ruffled Hiyoshi's hair, saying, "Aw, did we wake the wittle waby?" Hiyoshi gave a small smile, but Mukahi turned around before he could see it.

Oishi slowly opened his eyes, groaning. "Are we there yet?" he asked, yawning.

Eiji rolled his eyes. "You're such a party-popper! We've only been driving two hours!"

Half the bus groaned – Atobe's cabins had to be in the most remote locations, didn't they?

.

Atobe checked the bottom right hand corner of his laptop – it was eleven PM, and they had left at five.

_Did we take a detour?_ Atobe wondered as he began to shut down his laptop for the night. _It shouldn't take this long… Did we stop for gas? We did stop for awhile once we turned off the highway. Maybe the town was doing road work and we had to find another way to the cabin?_

"There was a flat tire, Atobe-san."

Atobe snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Kabaji, who was still awake despite the fact that almost everyone else was asleep.

"You didn't notice when everyone else walked off?" Kabaji was quit, being careful not to wake anyone else.

"There was a flat tire?" Atobe wasn't questioning Kabaji, he was questioning his memory. Atobe groaned when he remembered that there was a flat tire about three hours ago and it had taken an hour to get a new one.

"Why don't you sleep, Atobe-san? I'll wake you up when we arrive, it shouldn't be much longer."

Atobe mumbled a "thanks," which was a rare gesture for the heir, and then closed his eyes, drifting to sleep. Atobe always thought it was odd that Kabaji only said "usu" when they were in public. Everyone thought Kabaji was stupid, or antisocial, but in all reality, Kabaji was probably smarter than Yanagi – he retained information like a computer. Every date Atobe ever set up, every heiress Atobe's father wanted his son to marry, everything. He just didn't trust people because he saw greed in their eyes, yet he never saw any in Atobe's.

The heir chuckled, drifting into a deep sleep.

.

Jirou had naturally taken the first seat on the bus, the one in the aisle across from Atobe. The bumps and wiggles on the bus gave him motion sickness, but the bumps weren't that bad in the front. He had been sleeping when he heard Atobe groan, but he was quickly alert and awake.

"Why don't you sleep, Atobe-san? I'll wake you up when we arrive, it shouldn't be much longer."

Jirou pried one eye open and watched as Atobe nuzzled against the window of the bus. Kabaji took the heir's laptop – something normal people would be killed for doing – and slipped it into a case he had been holding.

"Thanks," Atobe mumbled, already half asleep.

Jirou opened his other eye, blinking in surprise. Atobe never said thanks. Jirou was too tired to really think too much about it, though, and ended up going back to sleep.

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**A/N: I'm just going to clear up this assumption now: not every character in this fic will be homosexual. There are actually friendship-only relationships in this fic, so don't think Yukimura is in love with Sanada, or Fuji with Tezuka, because they're not. **


	3. Chapter 3

**3.**

Atobe was a semi-morning person (when he had caffeine and a good night sleep).

Atobe sighed, waking from his dream. No matter how many times he fell asleep, he always seemed to find something new to dream about – flying, being able to freeze water, or his mother. He looked around, quickly getting that dumb smile off his face, and saw Kabaji staring out the window.

"Un?" Atobe looked out the window, but didn't seem much. He looked back at Kabaji. "Are we there yet?"

Kabaji pointed to the window, and Atobe took a closer look. "You can see the lights of the cabin, we just got out of town," Kabaji said. "We'll have to visit it before we leave."

Atobe nodded, making a mental note for him and Kabaji to go into town, and turned to look out the window again. Atobe could see the lights in his head before he could _actually _see them. He loved coming to visit his aunt when he visited Japan as a child; it was the only time away from home that he got besides tennis lesson, piano lessons, and his tutors.

"Just like I remember," Atobe mumbled, sitting forward to get a better look. He thought about apologizing to Kabaji for blocking his view, but decided against it since a few people were up. He was the heartless Atobe Keigo after all, and he definitely wouldn't apologize. The things he did to please his father.

The two floor log cabin had lights shining through every window. In the winter, the largest window showed a huge Christmas tree that just stole the spotlight. There were also a few cottages around the main cabin for the staff, which stayed all year round, getting everything they needed from the small town at the base of the mountain. However, the cabin was only open to high-class customers in the winter, when there was snow on the mountains and the hot springs were actually useful – during the other seasons, the lodge was only for the Atobe family.

The cabin itself was in a secluded forest, which was half the reason Atobe liked it. The whole cabin was surrounded by a thick dense forest, with a lake a little ways down a trail. Half the time, you could get a cell-phone signal, and you needed to use the land-line and Sakaki didn't have that number. Atobe could just picture Sakaki frantically pacing his office, not being able to reach him.

After another minute, the bus roared to a stop, and that left Atobe with the lovely job of somehow managing to wake everyone up. He knew that some people – mostly Shishido, Hiyoshi, and Sanada – were heavy sleepers and would slit his throat if he woke them up.

He sighed, standing up, with no clue how to wake them up.

_Kabaji couldn't carry them all… could he?_ Atobe wondered. _No, that's just wrong._

"We should just let them sleep," Atobe decided as he skimmed his eyes over the seats, looking for anyone else who was awake. Anyone awake noticed they had stopped, and stood up with what little they had been able to take from their school lockers before following Atobe and Kabaji off the bus.

"Atobe," Sanada said in his usual, flat tone.

The Hyotei captain turned around and noticed that Sanada was holding his laptop. No one touched his laptop besides Kabaji. He quickly from the boy's hands and walked up to the cabin.

Sanada looked confused, hurt almost. Almost. He turned to Yukimura. "Did I do something wrong?"

Yukimura giggled like a school girl – no wonder people thought he was a girl. "No, no, you didn't do anything wrong. I just think that Atobe is trying to live up to something he isn't. No one should do that."

"You did that, Yukimura."

Yukimura shot Sanada a you-did-_not_-just-say-that glare and sped up so he wasn't walking to next to that gorilla of a middle schooler.

The inside of the cabin was just like Atobe remembered it, only with a few new sofas, rugs, and other things. The walls were high and made of solid wood, and there were several hallways branching throughout the lodge. A few of the hallways led to spa-like areas, while others led to exercise rooms. Though he called it a cabin, it really was a ski lodge. Outside, in the back, there was a ski lift that took people up to the top of the mountain.

In the first floor lounge, there was an enormous stone fireplace that was surrounded by a large circular sofa with several breaks in it so people could get in and out. Atobe suddenly remembered one winter when he and his mother were sitting on that sofa drinking hot chocolate, watching the lodge residents walk in covered in snow.

_Perhaps we could all come here in the winter,_ Atobe mused.

Atobe looked at the other boys who had been awake and followed him in. They were scanning the room, their expressions similar to Atobe's. The heir shuttered at the thought of being the same as them. He wasn't them. He was rich; he was supposed to be a stone-cold man, not a boy who got excited over a cabin.

_No wonder Father stopped sending me here…_

He sighed, he was getting a headache just thinking about his father at a time like this. The captain led the boys to an equally memorizing upstairs – a pool table, another fireplace, and dozens of hallways branching out to other parts of the cabin.

Atobe quickly turned to face the others, and noticed the number of boys had increased yet again. "This cabin is used as a ski lodge in the winter, so the rooms will be suites. Throughout the duration of our stay –"

"Do we get room assignments or not?" Shishido asked, rudely cutting in.

"No. You may choose your –"

Before Atobe could finish, the boys began to wonder down the halls. He would have to make a room chart and see if anyone was allergic to anything so if anyone got room service – would the chefs let them have room service? – that no one ordered anything that would kill them.

"Atooobe," Jirou called from one of the halls.

Atobe tilted his head, smirking at the blonde's bed head. "You're awake?" He didn't mean for it to sound like a bad thing, he just hadn't pictured Jirou up at night.

"Are there any rooms with four beds? You, Kabaji, Hiyoshi, and I should share a room!"

"Do I get a say in this?" Hiyoshi asked as he came up the stairs, apparently just waking up and joining them.

Atobe shook his head, almost laughing as Jirou bounced towards Hiyoshi and jumped on his back. Atobe looked at the two and said, "Suite A has two king beds and two queen –"

"It's right down there!" Jirou shouted.

"Please get off, Jirou-sempai," the second year begged.

"Giddy up!"

Atobe took in a deep breath, but when he felt a large hand on his shoulder, he let that breath out. Atobe glanced at Kabaji's hand, and began to walk down the hall Hiyoshi was piggy-backing Jirou down.

"Let's go get some sleep, Kabaji," Atobe said as Kabaji's hand slid off his shoulder.

"Usu."

When Hiyoshi opened the door, Atobe stepped in first. Each suite had a small living area – a sofa, a table, a small TV, a small attached kitchen – along with its own bathroom, telephone. This particular suite had four separate bedrooms. Of course, even if it did have four bed rooms that were more luxurious than your average hotel, there was still only one bathroom.

Jirou jumped off Hiyoshi's back and ran towards a bedroom, holding his arms out like a plane and making the noises to go along with it. Hiyoshi shook his head and went into another room. Kabaji looked at Atobe, nodded, and then went into a room.

Luckily, the room that was still available had a king size bed. Atobe sighed and quickly began to pull off his tops – he was still in his school uniform and after a few hours it became an oven under that coat. He was just about to fall onto his bed in exhaustion, when he realized he wasn't holding his laptop.

He did a three-sixty. He didn't see it.

In a frenzy, he left his room and entered the living area of their suite and saw Kabaji holding it. "I forgot I was holding it," the second year said, somewhat apologetic.

Atobe nodded, grabbed the laptop, and then went back to his room. Then, just when he was about to collapse, he heard a muffled cry.

_Good god. Someone better be dying!_

He set his laptop on his bed, and then went back to the living area. He saw Jirou standing there, frowning. Jirou had somehow removed all of his clothes so he was in just his boxers in under a minute – the boy had an odd talent for removing his clothes quickly.

"What?" Atobe asked. Jirou didn't say anything. "What?" Atobe asked again, slightly annoyed. He was tired, tired enough to be a bitchy drama queen to Jirou.

"I don't want to sleep in my room," he said quietly.

"Why not?"

Jirou didn't say anything.

Atobe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Go sleep with Hiyoshi for the night, we'll figure something out tomorrow when I'm not on the verge of passing out from fatigue."

Jirou smile and hugged Atobe, blushing the second he did. The blonde took a step back, trying to act natural, before running towards Hiyoshi's room. The second Jirou opened the door, Atobe heard two screams: one from Jirou jumping on the bed, and one from Hiyoshi as Jirou landed on him.

"Hiyoshi, be thankful he jumped onto you while you're on a bed," Atobe called. "Try to get some sleep and don't let him crush you!"

All Atobe got was a sarcastic reply. Atobe waited a moment, and then decided it was okay for him to go back to his own room. He collapsed onto his bed, pulled his laptop in front of him, and waited for it to load back up. After the sound of the fan slowed down, he quickly went into work-mode. He pulled open his email, immediately regretting checking it.

_._

_Atobe,_

_In the attachment there is a list of Ryuzaki believes will benefit the teams. I say they are foolish and a waste of time, but apparently she believes they have some positive affect. Despite how childish they may seem, please follow them and tell me if anything should go wrong._

_She also requests to see a room chart since the rooms were not assigned. I do not care if you make it up, but at least make it sound reasonable. Do not put Kikumaru and Mukahi together, she would probably kill me._

_If anything is to go wrong, which it better not, I will hold you responsible._

_-Sakaki _

_PS: Remember to work on the club's budget for the graduation party, I have an important date tomorrow and am unable to do so._

_._

"Unable to do so my ass," Atobe mumbled as he closed the email. "You're probably out with some whore."

He opened the attachment, and immediately began to skim the activities Sakaki and Ryuzaki wanted them to do. The majority of the activities were rather foolish, but a few were doable. He quickly pulled open a few windows, filling the screen with stocks, data, and documents that were half-written.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**A/N: I have no ending comments but I feel obligated to write something.**


	4. Chapter 4

**4.**

Jirou was banging on Atobe's door.

The blonde had been the first to wake up, and felt a shiver run down his spine as he stared into the darkness. He wished his bags would just show up so he could get his nightlight – his mom did pack his nightlight, or at least he hoped she did.

When Atobe didn't open the door, Jirou opened it himself. Atobe never locked doors, but no one really walked in on him. Some first year did that once, and they got their head bit off (or that's what the rumors say).

"Atobe?" Jirou called out meekly. It was dark in Atobe's room besides the faint glow from the open laptop. Atobe was curled up next to his laptop, his mouth open as a small noise escaped those lips. Jirou stared at the heir's lips, and then his eyes went down to Atobe's still naked upper body.

"A-Atobe," he tried again.

Atobe stirred in his sleep, but didn't wake up.

And people called_ him_ a sound sleeper. He jumped over to the bed, closing Atobe's laptop, not even wanting to know what the heir was looking at, and grabbed onto what he could of Atobe's shoulders.

"Atobe, wake up," Jirou said, trying not to stutter as he forced the blood back to his body. Why was he blushing? He had seen guys naked before, why was Atobe's bare chest so different?

"Mother," Atobe said quietly. Jirou took his hands off as Atobe slowly opened his eyes. The heir seemed just as startled as Jirou. "Jirou," Atobe said, sitting up and clearing his throat. "What time is it?"

"Like, five in the morning, I think." Jirou ran a hand through his thick, knotted, curly hair. "I woke up, and it was too dark to see anything, so I came over here."

Atobe made a noise. He glanced at his now closed laptop, then back at Jirou. "Why didn't you wake Hiyoshi up?"

"He's meaner than you when he wakes up."

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "So I'm mean?" Jirou immediately waved his hands, apologizing. Atobe wanted to smirk because Jirou's blush was so strong it spread down to his bare chest. Instead of smirking, he just sighed softly. "I know what you meant, Jirou. Why don't you go watch something on TV? There's a large television in the lounge."

Jirou wiggled a bit. "I'm still tired…"

Atobe sighed again, and picked up his laptop. He moved from the middle of the bed to one side. "I'll be working," Atobe told Jirou as the blonde crawled to the other side. Jirou slid under the covers as Atobe said, "I'll try to be quiet, but I'm not making any promises."

Jirou smiled, turning his back towards Atobe. "You're definitely nicer than Hiyoshi."

Atobe didn't say anything. Instead, his fingers danced across the keyboard as his eyes darted from documents to the tennis club's private page. He glanced at Jirou from time to time, and by the way he was breathing, Atobe assumed he was asleep. Atobe thought about stopping his work and getting some sleep, but he had to finish that policy for Sakaki and write up a speech for a merger that his father was doing…

When Atobe finally did finish, Jirou was snoring. Atobe closed his laptop, sliding it onto the nightstand. He puffed his pillow and turned his back towards Jirou. The second his head hit the pillow, his whole body relaxed.

"Ngh," Jirou whimpered as he turned under the sheets. He rolled over to Atobe, still dead asleep, and draped an arm over Atobe's chest.

Atobe sighed. "I am not a teddy bear, Jirou."

Jirou wiggled against him, pressing his bare chest against his captain's bare back. Atobe sighed and closed his eyes, hoping his will would force himself to sleep. At least Jirou was warm.

.

The next morning, Atobe woke up before Jirou. Jirou had rolled off of him during the night, making it easy for Atobe to get out of the bed without waking him up. He spotted a bag on the inside of his door with a note. Walking over, Atobe picked up the bag and read the note.

_The bags arrived twenty minutes ago; they are in the second-floor lounge. _

_-K_

Atobe crumpled up the note Kabaji had left, tossing it into the trashcan. He set the bag on the dresser, unzipping it. He pulled out a pair of designer jeans and a tight, navy blue sweater and quickly changed. After tossing his dirty clothes into the corner of the room (_I'll need to ask the maids where they want us to put the laundry_, he thought), he left the room, making sure to close the door behind him so no one disturbed Jirou. If it was anyone else, he would have woken them up, but Jirou smiled in his sleep and Atobe just didn't have the heart.

"Atobe!" he heard someone call from downstairs.

"Atooobe!"

"Moron!"

"Monkey King!"

Atobe looked out the window and saw that the bus had left. He wanted to groan, but he didn't. He walked down the stairs only to see the rest of the boys who hadn't woken up the night before. Some of them had bags under their eyes, others were complaining about the bus seats.

Atobe ignored their complaints. He snapped, they looked, and he said, "Upstairs, you'll find your bags. There are several rooms, feel free to choose one; report to me once you chose a room. And try not to sound like a horde of rhinos, people are still sleeping."

There was a wave of whispers and "hey, sleep with me"s that shot through the mob of boys until someone had the nerve to speak up.

Oshitari Yuushi.

"What is it?" Atobe asked, not hiding his annoyance. He had just spent six hours running around like a drunken dolphin doing Sakaki's work, and didn't need Oshitari to ask sixty-thousand questions just to piss him off.

"Why exactly are we here?"

Before Atobe could answer, Tezuka cut in with, "Ryuzaki-sensei said that you would be conducting bonding exercises." There was a collective groan. "I was wondering… if that is the case, if I could assist you with planning those."

Did he want Tezuka's help? Sure, he would have less work, but Tezuka might mess something up and he could not have that. It was Tezuka, though. Why did Tezuka have to ruin his day already? Then Atobe thought of the perfect solution, he just needed a perfect boy.

"If you wish, but please inform Yukimura that he must help as well. It's us three or just me."

Tezuka nodded before making his way upstairs. If Yukimura, Mr. Perfectionist, helps, then things will work out. There was some logic behind it. Some.

Atobe watched as the rest of the boys walked by him. He felt a hand graze his, but didn't think anything of it, it was probably an accident, but he decided to see who had done it anyways. Oshitari looked over his shoulder and smirked before reaching out to grab Mukahi's hand. Maybe it wasn't an accident, but Atobe was too tired to care. He rolled his shoulders, feeling tired again. How long had he slept? He wasn't sure. Maybe an hour or two at best – warmth or not, Jirou drooled in his sleep, and that was not comfortable.

Once the boys were out of site and the footsteps above him stopped, he walked over to the circular sofa that was in front of the fireplace. He sat down, finding it oddly comfortable. Atobe let out a long sigh of relief as he closed his eyes – hoping everyone else would sleep for at least another hour so he could get some rest.

.

_Atobe was walking through the halls of the mansion he called his home when he heard a scream. He ignored it at first, but then he heard it again, the shrill sound ringing in his ears._

"_Stupid woman!" he heard a man yell. "How could I have married you?"_

.

"Atobe, wake up!"

Atobe felt someone grabbed his shoulder, and he shot up like he had just been shot. "Don't touch me, you bastard!"

Sanada pulled his hand off of Atobe's shoulder and just blinked. Atobe looked around and saw Yukimura, Sanada, Oishi, Tezuka, Kabaji, and Oshitari starring at him with rather odd (or disturbed) expressions. Not many people saw Atobe sleep, let alone wake up screaming.

Atobe rubbed his head, not bothering to say he was sorry. He wasn't sorry anyways. They woke him up from a rather unpleasant dream –or whatever the hell that was. What else did they expect?

"What is it? If you needed to wake me up so badly it better be pretty damn important." Atobe's voice was as cold as ice. What did a guy have to do to get an hour's rest? Kill someone?

Oishi tentatively handed Atobe a sheet of paper. Atobe gave him a look as Oishi rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, it's nothing bad!" Oishi reassured him. "It's just some ideas to help the team bond."

Atobe wanted to say that there was no way in hell they were using those because Sakaki would ring his neck, but that wouldn't go over too well. "We should do the one our senseis want us to do first, and if we have extra time then we can do these."

"That sounds fine to me," Yukimura said, smiling. As everyone left slowly, Yukimura stayed back. Once everyone besides him and Atobe were gone, he asked, "Just what king of a dream was that?"

Atobe ignored him and walked towards Kabaji who had been standing by a staff door that lead to the kitchen. The two went inside, but Atobe did shoot Yukimura a glare before closing the door behind him.

The kitchen was attached to the dining hall, but there was a separate door to get to the dining hall. It was just easier for the staff to have another door to the kitchen besides the one in the hall. The kitchen, like everything else, was state of the art. There were several chefs working, but one, the one with the tallest white hat, came up to Atobe and hugged him.

"Keigo-kun!" she said, letting go of him. Atobe was shocked, but didn't show it. Kabaji looked a little confused, and just blinked when the woman hugged him too. She let go of the large second year and took a step back, smiling.

Atobe looked at her closely – she had brown hair, and brown eyes. She had a small mole under one eye, but other than that, there was nothing special about her. She was a little plump, if that made her special.

"My, my, my…." She trailed off. "You've grown!"

"Who are you again?" Atobe didn't want to sound blunt or rude, but the way he asked the question just screamed blunt _and _rude.

She laughed. "I'm sorry; I just assumed you would remember me. I guess not. I'm the head chef, Tora."

And, suddenly, Atobe remembered her. She gave him sweets he wasn't supposed to eat, and allowed him to hang out in the kitchen when it was raining outside. She was a nice woman and looked the same as she did all those years ago.

"I'm actually glad you're down here," Tora said. "Breakfast will be made and served around eight. Lunch will be served between noon and one, depending on how big breakfast is. Dinner will be served between six and seven. But the kitchen is open at any time, so feel free to come in and snack – just don't bother our work."

Atobe nodded. "Thank you, Tora-san. I do have one question, though."

"Shoot, big boy."

"May we order room service?"

She pressed her lips together, and then nodded. "I suppose. Just not extremely late or early. From eight to six should be okay. I'll run it by the other chefs; if I don't say anything, you're all good."

Atobe nodded. "Good. I'll send a list of allergies down later tonight."

"Okay, that sounds good!" She turned to continue to work, but suddenly turned back around. "I almost forgot!" She pointed to a cabinet in the corner. "Alcohol is kept in there. Please don't take more than one bottle at a time."

"You're allowing us to drink underage?" Atobe wasn't sure if he should be worried or not. He had had his fair share of puking his guts out in the toilet because of that damn wine his father imports, but he was pretty sure some of those stupid Seigaku boys hadn't come within a mile of strong, expensive imports.

She winked. "As long as it stays in the cabin, I don't see why not. And don't worry about anyone getting drunk off the food, almost no dishes require alcohol."

Atobe nodded and spotted Kabaji. The younger boy looked as though he was trying to hide the fact that he thought the woman was insane. He wasn't doing so well, though.

"Is there anything else?"

"Um? Oh, feel free to leave! I'll see you later!" She smiled and went back to work.

Atobe and Kabaji left the kitchen, slightly disturbed. Atobe shook his head, looking up at Kabaji who had a small grin on his lips. Atobe copied that grin before heading back upstairs to hopefully get some more sleep.

Jirou was still in his bed, dead asleep. Atobe thought for a second that he might actually be dead, but when the blonde turned on his side, Atobe figured he was very much alive. Atobe kept his clothes on, not caring how tight his sweater and jeans were, as he collapsed onto the bed.

.

_Atobe's feet stopped at his father's large study door. It was open and the maids were all standing there silently, not lifting a finger to help the blonde haired woman on the ground. Atobe walked in, glaring at the maids who quickly left. Atobe slammed the door shut. _

"_Why don't you leave, Keigo? Your mother and I need to talk."_

_Atobe didn't move._

"_Son," his father's voice was dripping with danger, "I said leave."_

"_No." Atobe's voice was firm, unwavering even when his father took a step towards him._

"_Just leave, Keigo!" his mother shouted. _

"_I'm sorry Mother, but I'm not leaving."_

.

Atobe felt himself shaking when he opened his eyes. No, he wasn't shaking. He was bouncing. Wait. Bouncing?

Atobe looked over to the other side of the large bed and saw Jirou jumping up and down. Atobe told Jirou to stop, and the blonde stopped jumping. Jirou got down on his hands and knees and crawled over to Atobe. _He looks like a two year old_, Atobe thought.

"Ne, Atobe." Atobe nodded, which was a sign for Jirou to get whatever it was in his system out. "What are we doing today?"

"Whatever people want to do. Sakaki wants us to get accustomed to our surroundings."

Jirou wiggled off the bed. "I'm gonna go get changed! Do you want to play some games afterwards?"

"It's possible that –"

"Yippy!"

Jirou ran out of the room, leaving Atobe no room to say that he was going to get a shower and that he had a lot of work to get done. The heir sighed, running a hand through his bed head. Jirou sure was one hell of a wake-up call. Atobe glanced at the clock: 12:00.

_If I have to kill someone to sleep, it's Echizen,_ he decided.

He groaned, and then began to slink his way into the bathroom. He began taking off his sweater and unzipping his jeans before he even got into the luxurious bathroom. Once he did get inside, he set all of his clothes on the counter and turned on the shower.

And that's when the door opened.

Atobe didn't even have time to react. He just stood there, naked, with his body refusing to grab the towel. "Jirou!"

The blonde raised is eyes from Atobe's groin, up to his eyes, and then began to blush. "Sorry! I just wanted to wash my face before I changed. I-I'll-I'll leave."

Jirou rushed out of the bathroom to his bedroom, locking the door behind him. He patted his cheeks a couple of times, then let out a deep sigh. It was just Atobe, what was the big deal? He had seen him naked before. But never that close.

Jirou shook his head, heading for his clothes. He grabbed a pair of shorts and a T-shirt; he quickly changed, putting them on before heading out of his room and their suite all together. He walked down the halls, practically hyperventilating.

_It's just Atobe. It's just Atobe. God, who knew he was so hot? No! He's my captain! I can't think about him like that? Can I? NO!_

When Jirou found himself calmed down enough to think straight, he realized he was already in the second-floor longue. He saw some people sitting in the bean bags and quickly joined them, hoping to get his mind off of Atobe's, well, penis.

"What are you watching?" Jirou asked. Mukahi, Marui, Akaya, and Hiyoshi were in the other beanbags. He noticed Marui and Akaya were sharing one. Weird.

"Old anime reruns," Akaya said, leaning his head against Marui's shoulder.

Jirou nodded. He never really cared for anime or manga, like some of the other boys, because he never really related to it. They talk, fight for thirty episodes, and go back home just to end up fighting up again. He would rather spend his time playing tennis against Atobe.

_Atobe,_ Jirou groaned mentally. _Not again! Ok, Jirou, think about manly things and not Atobe. Sweat, boobs, vaginas, penises, Atobe's penis – crap! This isn't working!_

Jirou absent mindedly groaned as he tossed his head back, catching a strong wave of a fruity scent. He looked at Mukahi. "You smell like strawberries. I like strawberries. Atobe smells like watermelon, Marui smells like apples, and Hiyoshi smells like mangos. Why don't I have a scent?" Jirou asked, just trying to get Atobe off his mind.

The boys just passed Jirou's mumblings off as, well, Jirou's mumblings, until Marui became slightly confused at one sent. "How do you know what Atobe smells like?" Marui asked, turning to look at Jirou over Akaya's shoulder.

Akaya immediately turned off the TV and set the remote in his lap. He looked at the blonde in fascination, Mukahi and Hiyoshi turning a second later

"How _do_ you know what Atobe-san smells like?" Hiyoshi asked, slightly interested in something for the first time since they got here.

"Yuushi smells like strawberries, too, we use the same shampoo," Mukahi mumbled.

"No one cares," Marui told the other red head. He turned back to Jirou. "Jirou?"

Jirou shrugged. "I don't know, I just know. How do you know what Oshitari smells like?" Mukahi smirked, and Jirou quickly said, "Don't answer that. I'm just going to go for a walk."

The other boys nodded and quickly turned their attention back to the TV. It was Hiyoshi who realized they needed to turn it back on.

* * *

**A/N: Super skippy nonsense chapter FTW.**


	5. Chapter 5

**5.**

Niou Masaharu was not in love with Yagyuu Hiroshi.

He hated it when girls walked up to him and asked, "Are you and Yagyuu-san dating?" He would just roll his eyes at them. He was close to his doubles partner, close enough to tell Yagyuu that he was gay, but not _that _close. Yagyuu was actually as straight as an arrow, or as Niou liked to refer to him, "the little bastard you need to find the slope of in math class. Not the one that curves, but the one that actually stays straight."

Niou flopped onto the large sofa in the living area of Yagyuu's and his suite. Unlike Atobe's four bedroom suite, the suite Niou and Yagyuu chose only had two separate bedrooms. Niou couldn't complain, though, because the rooms were huge.

Yagyuu walked out of the bathroom a moment later, running a towel over his still-wet hair. He was dressed, though, and sat down by Niou's feet.

"Don't be rude, Niou-kun," Yagyuu said, leaving the towel around his neck to catch any drops of water that hadn't quite been picked up when he rubbed his hair.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Your feet are on an expensive leather sofa that's probably worth more than your house," Yagyuu pointed out.

"And I should care _why_?"

"You just should, that's why. You should also change."

Niou looked down at what he was wearing. He was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts with grass stains. He looked at what Yagyuu was wearing – a long sleeve brown sweater and dark blue jeans.

Niou rolled his eyes. "It's like, hot outside."

"Very grown-up language, I see," Yagyuu said, fixing his glasses. "You won't impress Marui with those shorts, though."

Niou reached behind him and grabbed a pillow. Then he chucked it at Yagyuu's head.

"That's not very civilized, Niou-kun," Yagyuu said, tossing his towel at Niou.

"Like that was?" Niou asked, gesturing towards Yagyuu's wet towel.

"Yes, it was."

Niou rolled his eyes again and rolled of the sofa. He got up, shot Yagyuu a look, and then left their suite. He walked down the hall to the second floor lounge and saw Shishido and Ohtori setting up the pool table.

"Oh, you like pool?" Niou asked, running his hand along the side. The wood appeared to be something expensive, like everything else in the cabin, and the table had a deep, rich blue for the felt color.

"Yeah, it's just a hobby." Shishido shrugged. "Wanna play? I'm sure we could find someone else to make it two-on-two."

"_You_ want to play with _me_?" Niou laughed at the thought. "Sorry, Rich Boy, but I don't play with people like you."

Shishido glared at him. "Don't ever call me 'Rich Boy' again."

Just then, Hiyoshi walked out of his room and into the lounge. "Wakashi!" Ohtori called out.

The solemn second year walked over to the pool table and put his hands into his short's pockets. "What is it, Choutarou?"

"Want to be my partner?" Ohtori asked, hoping Shishido and Niou would stop their bickering.

Hiyoshi pulled a hand out of his pocket to rub the back of his head. "Atobe-buchou told me to go find Jirou-sempai…"

"It'll only take a minute," Niou told him, grabbing a cue from the rack. "It'll be Rich Boy and me against you and Ohtori. Of course, it won't be my fault if a ball goes flying off the table and hits someone in their non-existent jewels." The trickster flashed a toothy smile at Shishido.

.

Jirou was outside, lying in the grass field that was behind the cabin. He wasn't tired, though. In fact, he wasn't even narcoleptic. His mother took him to a doctor, and they said he is simply over sensitive to others feelings. For a whole week, Jirou had thought the doctors meant that he had ESP. It actually just meant he acted how others around him acted; if someone was bored, Jirou would be tired; if someone was glad, Jirou would bounce up and down for joy.

"Momo-sempai, you're so stupid sometimes."

Jirou sat up and turned around. He saw Momo and Ryoma walking towards him. Momo had his hands behind his head, while Ryoma had his in his pockets. Jirou just watched them for a moment until Momo looked at him.

"Sorry," Jirou said, "I'll stop starring."

Ryoma tilted his head. "Eh, aren't you the one who gets hyper?"

Momo slapped Ryoma in the back of the head then just left his arms down by his sides. "That's not very respectful."

"So says the idiot who asked Inui-sempai why he wanted to share a suite with Kaidoh-sempai."

Momo turned bright red in frustration. "I told you, I was just curious! It's not my fault Inui-sempai called me a gay voyager!"

"But you are."

"They're not even going out! How can I be a voyager on people who aren't even going out?"

"I don't know, but you still are." Ryoma shrugged.

"I am not!"

"Sempai is a liar," Ryoma said, smiling. Then Momo grabbed his kohai's cap. Momo held it above his head so that even when Ryoma began to jump to get it, the shorter boy couldn't reach it. Inui's milk theory had failed, Ryoma was still short.

Jirou chuckled when Ryoma began to tickle Momo in an attempt to get his hat back (it didn't work). "You guys are funny."

Momo and Ryoma stopped fighting and looked down at Jirou. "Why aren't you with Monkey King?" Ryoma asked curiously.

Momo nodded, making a sound of agreement. "Yeah, aren't you always with him or that Marui guy?"

_I saw him naked,_ Jirou thought. _And Kirihara is clinging to Marui like a leech._

"I like to be alone at times, too, you know," he lied. He was a people person, usually.

Momo just made a noise and gave Ryoma his hat back. The younger boy turned to go back into the cabin, but Momo waited a second. He looked at Jirou, opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and replaced his non-spoken words with a smile. Jirou smiled back, confused, and then Momo ran off after Ryoma, shouting something about Inui being psycho.

_Are they mental?_ Jirou wondered as he lied back down.

.

"Hiyooooo," Mukahi yelled, jumping down the last few stairs to catch up to the second year. He jumped onto Hiyoshi's back, wrapping his arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.

"Mukahi-san, I spent all night with Jirou-sempai on top of me, please get off," Hiyoshi said.

"_Really_?" Mukahi cooed, grinning from ear to ear. He rested his head on Hiyoshi's shoulder. "So you slept together?"

"Don't take it out of context," Hiyoshi said quickly as he began to walk towards the door that led outside.

"But it's true," Mukahi continued, "you did sleep together. It's not my fault you're such a pervert and assumed that I would think that, Hiyo-chan."

Hiyoshi rolled his eyes, wishing his bangs would cover the smile that spread across his lips. He opened the door the outside, and tried to shrug Mukahi off. It didn't work. For such a small guy, Mukahi had a good grip.

"Why are you going outside, anyways?" Mukahi asked curiously. "Running? Meditating? Enboob?"

"It's enbu," Hiyoshi corrected, "and, no. Atobe-buchou told me to find Jirou-sempai. Apparently, Jirou-sempai got scared by a bug or something and ran out of the room."

"Bug? Jirou likes bugs, I think," Mukahi said. Hiyoshi put his hands on Mukahi's thighs so he wouldn't fall. Mukahi patted him on the head. "Good horsey."

"Why does everyone ride me like this? First Jirou-sempai, now you."

Mukahi just grinned.

They spotted Jirou lying in the grass and immediately assumed he was asleep. Hiyoshi squatted down by Jirou's head and Mukahi by his feet. It wasn't always Kabaji who had to go find Jirou, and Hiyoshi and Mukahi had a system of carrying Jirou somewhere.

Hiyoshi grabbed Jirou's shoulders; Jirou opened his eyes. Hiyoshi stood up, taking a step back.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jirou asked, sitting up. "Hiyoshi, you know I don't like it when people put their hands on me."

"You're all perverts," Hiyoshi mumbled.

"What was that?" Jirou asked, hearing exactly what Hiyoshi had said. He just liked the way Hiyoshi said it, like he was a six year old saying "sex" for the first time.

"Oh, since when are you afraid of bugs?" Mukahi asked, stopping Hiyoshi before he could repeat himself.

Jirou tilted his head, confused. "I'm not. I think they're cute. Except those big spiders, like down in Australia, they scare me. Why?"

"Atobe-buchou said you got freaked out by a bug and sent me to look for you," Hiyoshi said. "That was about an hour ago."

"An hour? Did you get lost or something?" Mukahi asked.

"I did not get lost, Choutarou just distracted me."

"God," Mukahi groaned, "did you sleep with him, too?"

Jirou looked between the two, became very, very confused, and decided to stop Hiyoshi before he punched Mukahi like Eiji did last camp.

"I'll go find Atobe. Do you know where he is, Hiyoshi?" Jirou asked.

"His room, probably."

Jirou nodded and stood up, hurrying along his way back to the cabin. He found Atobe upstairs in his room, just like Hiyoshi had suggested. He knocked on the door this time, and when Atobe told him to come in he did.

"Um, Atobe," Jirou said softly, "Hiyoshi found me so…"

Atobe didn't look up from his laptop. Jirou wished he could read minds in that moment, because he wanted to know whether Atobe was too full of himself to look up, or if he was too embarrassed to meet Jirou's eye.

"Um, Atobe?"

"Yes?"

Jirou rolled his shoulders nervously. "Why'd you tell Hiyoshi I was scared by a bug?"

"Because," Atobe said, already having a reply thought up, "it would be troublesome if people knew what had happened. It was just an accident, Jirou, you understand that, don't you?"

"Yes, I understand. I'll be in my room for the rest of the night," he said softly before closing the door behind him.

When Jirou closed the door, Atobe opened up the window he had closed when the blonde walked in. He didn't know why he closed it, he just had. He looked at the order form for the flowers he was in the process of ordering, and came to the personalization part.

_Sincerely, Keigo_

He moved his pointer of the confirm button, but stopped himself. He went back up to the personalization section, erasing what he had typed. He replaced it with:

_Love, Keigo_

He hit confirm on the bottom, and then closed his laptop for the time being.

* * *

**A/N: No comments.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Note: Just a bit of a time skip, nothing much. It's night time in this chapter.**

**

* * *

**

**6.**

Fuji thought of Tezuka like his second younger brother.

Oddly enough, it was Tezuka who always babied Fuji, despite being the younger of the two. If Fuji forgot a book, Tezuka would come over to his house to give it to him. The fact that they lived two houses away from each other might have had something to do with it, but that didn't matter. But, in the end, Fuji was older, so it was Tezuka who was the younger brother.

Yuuta, of course, was still Fuji's only true brother, but what he didn't know didn't hurt him. Tezuka was his age and understood what Yuuta couldn't. He understood the difficulties of picking a high school, of choosing classes, of those awkward girls who confessed their feelings. Yuuta didn't have to worry about high school yet, his classes were set, and he was too oblivious to realize when a girl confessed.

Fuji still remembered the one conversation that made him think of Tezuka like a brother.

"Ne, Tezuka," Fuji said as they walked home one day their second year, "what would happen if I hired two private detectives and ordered them to follow one another?"

"Would they know that they're following a detective?" Tezuka had asked.

Fuji hummed, thinking for a moment. "No."

"Then I think that that would be very interesting."

It was a random, pointless conversation that held no real meaning to either of the two now. But, somehow, Fuji understood that he could ask Tezuka anything, no matter how wrong, dirty, stupid, or taboo it was. And he had. He had asked him questions, questions that boys were just assumed to know the answer to, like sex or girls, and Tezuka would always answer him without judgment.

Even now, Fuji still felt confident with Tezuka's trust.

Fuji, Tezuka, Oishi and Eiji were sitting in the living area of their suite as they watched TV. They finally decided on some mystery/romantic-comedy, because Eiji wanted to laugh, Oishi wanted not to cry, Fuji wanted to see guns, and Tezuka wanted them all to shut up (he didn't use those words; he told them, "Just pick already," like a civilized man).

Fuji rested his head in Tezuka's lap, sighing. Tezuka grabbed a pillow, tapped Fuji's shoulder, and put it under the older boy's head when he lifted it for a second.

"You two are like a couple," Eiji joked as Fuji set his head onto the pillow.

"Of course," Fuji said, winking at Tezuka, "we go at it like rabbits."

Eiji laughed nervously, Oishi went pale, and Tezuka flicked Fuji on the forehead.

Fuji rubbed his forehead. "You suck."

"It's your fault for making jokes like that," Tezuka muttered. "It's no wonder half of the school is under the impression that we're gay."

"Yeah, you can get pretty weird sometimes, Fuji," Eiji said, nodding for emphasis.

Fuji rolled his eyes. "It's not my fault people think we all go at it like Oshitari and Mukahi in the showers – they have more sex than mice. How many babies can mice have at a time?" Fuji looked up at Tezuka, waiting for an answer. Tezuka didn't say anything.

"I'm officially disturbed," Oishi mumbled after a moment of awkward silence. "Can we please stop talking about this?"

"Yeah, too much male bonding," Eiji laughed.

The four turned their attention back to the movie. They were all silent expect for the sounds of the guns and the cries of the girl in the movie. Just as the heroine was about to be set free, they heard something rather disturbing, and it wasn't supposed to be in the movie.

"Fuji, what are you doing to Tezuka?" Eiji asked, looking down at Fuji whose head was still in Tezuka's lap.

Fuji sat up and looked at Tezuka. "You didn't just… _moan_, did you?"

Tezuka shook his head, obviously disturbed. "No. I didn't."

The four boys looked at each other. "Well, it is dark out, maybe it was an owl," Oishi said, trying to convince himself the sound he heard wasn't human.

Then they turned their focus back to the movie, hoping it really was an owl. But moments later, they heard the same loud, distinctive groan.

"What if someone's dying?" Eiji asked. "Oishi, I don't want to die! I knew this was a murder house, no cabin is this large and secluded for no reason!"

Oishi laughed nervously. "It isn't a murder house."

"Oishi's right," Tezuka agreed. "There must be some explainable –"

They heard it again.

They all sat there silently until Fuji asked, "Who's in the suite next to us?"

Oishi thought for a moment, and then turned red. "Oshitari and Mukahi," Oishi said softly. "I think Shishido and Ohtori-kun might be in there, too."

Eiji looked at the wall behind the sofa, heard the groan again, and said, "That's the same noise Mukahi made when I protected myself last year."

"You broke his nose," Fuji said.

"Shut up! You sat on Tezuka's glasses then gave him Oshitari's last year, too," Eiji shot back playfully.

"That was before I knew they were fake," Fuji reminded him. "I wouldn't dare do that again, ne, Tezuka?"

They heard the groan again.

"Tezuka, why don't you go find Atobe?" Oishi suggested.

Tezuka stood up quickly when they heard it again. Fuji frowned and Eiji pouted. "I don't want to have to listen to them," Eiji whined.

When Tezuka began to walk to the door, Fuji said, "Tezuka, if it is a murder house, don't die, okay?"

Tezuka sighed and closed the door behind him.

Tezuka quickly found Atobe's suite and knocked on the door. When no one opened, he walked in. He figured he couldn't knock on every door to find out which one belonged to Atobe, because he had a seventy-five percent chance of waking up someone else. He turned on the lights instead, figuring Atobe would still be awake and would see the light come in from under the door.

A moment later, Atobe came out of his room. Tezuka thought Atobe didn't look so fierce with bed hair, bags under his eyes, and only a pair of Hyotei sweat pants on. But, like the civilized person he is, he chose not to comment on the heir's appearance.

Atobe rubbed his eyes, but swiftly narrowed them when he saw Tezuka. "Tezuka, what is it?"

"Mukahi and Oshitari are in the room next to us," Tezuka told him.

Atobe nodded slowly. "I am aware. I went around and got room choices today after lunch."

"I'm trying to say they're in the room next to us and the walls are rather thin," Tezuka tried again.

"Oh." Atobe smiled. "Tezuka, don't tell me you're _prude_. You know it is perfectly acceptable for two men to –"

"I know," Tezuka said, cutting him off. "I don't want to listen to them all night."

Atobe nodded, understanding that stupid Seigaku's captain's position. "Very well then. Let's go," Atobe said, gesturing towards the door. The two of them walked back into the hallway.

.

Jirou stirred in his bed when the extra light came flooding into his room. His nightlight was on, but he was used to its soft glow. He sat up, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his footie cloud PJs. He looked around, saw the light under the door, and closed his eyes again.

.

_Jirou walked through the halls of the cabin slightly confused at how barren and quite it was. There were no lights on and there was no laughter from people in the rooms. He opened the door to his suite, and instead of the living area, he saw a large white room covered in rose petals._

"_What the –?"_

_In the middle of the room, there was a large bed with what appeared to be black silk sheets. Atobe was sitting on the edge of the bed in a crisply ironed tuxedo, with his legs crossed and a smile on his lips. The tuxedo didn't have a tie or a bowtie, and was unbuttoned at the top. _

"_Atobe," Jirou said, not believing his eyes, "what's going on?"_

_Atobe just kept smiling and rose from the bed. He slowly began walking towards Jirou, his hips swaying with each step. Jirou just kept starring at his hips, unable to look at his captain's face. Jirou didn't even realize Atobe had his eyes locked on him until they were only inches apart._

"_Atobe –"_

_Atobe pressed a finger to the blonde's lips. "Shhh," he hushed. "No need to ask questions."_

_Jirou was hypnotized by Atobe's voice. It was thick and sweet, like maple syrup. Atobe grabbed Jirou's wrist and gently coaxed him to the bed. He laid Jirou down, the blonde's knees hanging off the end of the bed. Atobe smiled and put a knee between Jirou's legs, and pulled off his jacket. He tossed it to the side and kept his eyes locked on Jirou's as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt. _

_Atobe leaned down, placing butterfly kisses along his neck, slowly moving up his jaw until he got to his chin. Jirou felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest when Atobe looked at him with those eyes. He had the same look in his eyes whenever he played Tezuka or Ryoma, and Jirou felt like he was dying with those eyes staring at him._

"_Atobe…"_

_Atobe dropped his shirt on the ground before leaning down over Jirou. Atobe went to kiss Jirou on the lips, but smiled and moved over to his ear instead, whispering unspeakable things. Jirou was frozen in shock (or was it anticipation?) when Atobe slid a hand down his thigh._

"_Jirou." Atobe kissed Jirou's jaw line, leaving a trail with his lips until he reached the blonde's neck._

"_Jirou." That voice was driving him insane._

"_Jirou!"_

.

Jirou's eyes flew open as the out-of-his-dreams Atobe from his dream forcefully called out his name. Much to Jirou's excitement, and dismay, the real Atobe who had been screaming his name was standing at the side of his bed.

"Are you okay? I was going back to my room and I heard –" Atobe stopped himself there, refusing to finish the sentence.

Believe it or not, this has actually happened once before. The situation was different, seeing as how Jirou was dreaming about his girlfriend at the time and not his captain. Atobe had been doing the afternoon practice clean up (Sakaki's orders), and saw Jirou under a tree. He walked up to the blonde to wake him up, when he heard a moan escape the blonde's lips.

Needless to say, this current encounter was much more awkward than the last time.

"Jirou?" Atobe tried again.

What was he supposed to say, the truth? That he was dreaming about his captain whispering dirty words into his ear? Yes, that would go over _perfectly_.

Atobe reached out and felt Jirou's forehead. "Are you sick? You're hot," Atobe said, pulling his hand back.

Jirou flushed even more when he realized Atobe wasn't wearing a shirt. "I-I-I'm fine. Actually, no, I'm not. I'm sick. Very, very, very sick. I think I just need sleep."

_The last_ _thing I need is sleep_, Jirou thought.

Atobe nodded and left the room, saying something about asking Kabaji for aspirin, if he needed any. When the door closed, the lights from the living area turned off a moment later, and Atobe's bed room door made the familiar click sound, Jirou's mind went into overdrive.

_I was just – about Atobe? Holy. Crap. Muffins. _

_

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**A/N: Comments? Questions? Concerns? **


	7. Chapter 7

**7.**

Jirou had been afraid to sleep the rest of the night.

It's not like you could blame him, though. He didn't want to dream about his captain, his best friend, like that. No. He _couldn't_ dream about his captain like that. He simply refused to for two simple reasons. One: he wasn't gay, two: he didn't _want _to dream about Atobe like that!

At seven or so in the morning, Jirou got out of bed and walked over to his bags, figuring he wouldn't be the only one up since Atobe mentioned something about breakfast at eight. His mom had packed two bags, one full of clothes, the other with his toothbrush, teddy bear, nightlight, and other necessities like his vitamins. He had a bag in his room that wasn't his, though – someone must have messed up when they handed out the bags. Jirou grabbed an old T-shirt and jeans out of his bag, having not bothered to unpack yet all of his things yet, and headed for the bathroom.

He turned the water on as cold as if he could before stepping in a second later. He bit his lip to keep himself from screaming. The water was so cold it burned his skin. He fumbled as he tried to raise the heat just a little. After finding a decent, but still cool temperature, Jirou put his head against the cold tiles and let the water run down his back.

He liked really cold showers and really hot showers. Cold showers cooled him down after a long match, and hot showers relaxed his muscles after a harsh practice. He always stood there, just letting the water run over his body. Atobe once told him that he had stayed in the showers for an hour, but when Atobe smiled, Jirou knew the heir had been kidding.

_Atobe,_ Jirou thought, raising his hands to run them through his knotted, curly hair.

He sighed, turning off the water and grabbing a towel off the rod that was right outside the shower. He quickly wrapped it around his waist and grabbed another for his hair. He ran the towel over his hair, then over his body, and looked in the mirror.

He spotted his footie PJs that he had worn then night before and thought about burning them. The thought of wearing the PJs from his dream freaked him out a bit. Now his head was hurting thinking about the dream and his sleepless night.

"Deodorant, deodorant," Jirou mumbled to himself, looking around the bathroom for his hygienic things that he had unpacked. "Son of a monkey!"

He grabbed his clothes, having forgotten his deodorant (he refused to get dressed in just his pants, it felt unnatural), and awkwardly tried to hold his towel at the same time. When he left the bathroom he saw that Atobe's bedroom door was ajar.

_It's wrong for me to look,_ Jirou thought, but his body moved to look in anyways.

Atobe was sitting on his bed with his phone in one hand, a pen in the other, his laptop in front of him, and a notebook on his lap. Kabaji was sitting at the edge of the bed, his eyes fixated on Atobe.

"Yes," Atobe said, sighing. There was a long pause before Atobe just shook his head, confused. "What is that exactly? It sounds like a term a ferret created."

Atobe scribbled something on the notebook and handed it to Kabaji. He slid his laptop over to the second year and covered up the bottom half of his phone.

"I have no idea what the fuck this guy is talking about," Atobe said bluntly.

Kabaji nodded and began to type.

"Forty-two percent?" Atobe asked, uncovering the phone. "That's all?" There was a long pause. Atobe sighed and rubbed his temple, somehow not poking himself in the eye with his pen (Jirou found that to be pretty cool). "Okay, well, is there anyone who can perform it with better chances of success? Cost isn't a problem at all."

There was another long pause, and then Atobe rolled his eyes. Just as Atobe went to say something, Jirou felt someone tapping his shoulder. He jumped, shut the door without thinking, and fixed his falling towel.

"Jirou-sempai, what are you doing?" Hiyoshi asked, his eyebrow furrowed.

Jirou waved his arms in the air like he was doing some voo-doo summoning ritual. "Are you insane?" he asked. "What if he saw me because of you?"

Hiyoshi tilted his head, still looking confused. "He'd know that you're stalking him."

"I'm not stalking, I'm lurking – there's a difference."

Hiyoshi rolled his eyes, mumbling something about insanity, and knocked on Atobe's door. "Atobe-buchou, I need to ask you something."

There was a moment of silence and quite arguing before Kabaji opened the door and said, "Atobe-san and I need a few more minutes. He's in the middle of a very important phone call."

The door closed. Hiyoshi threw his hands up and sighed. "Sometimes you think they're having sex in there." Hiyoshi cringed at the thought, and then he saw that Jirou was blushing. "God. They're having sex, aren't they?"

"No! Just please don't mention Atobe and sex, the mental image is stuck in my head."

Hiyoshi just nodded, thoroughly confused and disturbed, as he walked away. He stopped half way through the living area and turned around. "If you see my bag, could you give it to me? It's a black duffle bag. My mom said she sent it, but it wasn't in my room."

"It's in my room."

"Mind if I get it?"

"Go ahead."

"I'll only be a minute," Hiyoshi promised.

When Hiyoshi went into Jirou's room, and the door knob on Atobe's door moved, Jirou's mind threw his common sense and his sanity out his ear.

_Crap._

Jirou just stood there. And, as if he was watching in slow motion, Atobe walked out of the room, his expression anything but pleasant.

"Jirou," he said, stopping at his door.

"Uh…"

Being around Atobe seemed to have an odd affect on his brain, such as making it not work.

Atobe just stood there silently for a moment before saying, "Could you move? I need to use the restroom."

Jirou nodded, flushing in embarrassment as he moved out of the way. Atobe nodded and looked at Jirou, his eyes lingering on the boy's chest. When the door closed, Jirou's mind began to work again.

_Was he checking me out?_

Jirou felt someone tap his shoulder. He spun around and saw Hiyoshi standing there with his bag. "Thanks," the second year mumbled. Jirou nodded, mumbled a standard "no problem," and went into his room to worry about whether or not Atobe had just checked him out.

* * *

**A/N: Gah. Short chapters are evil.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Note: I know the interaction I made Yanagi and Sanada have in grade school couldn't possibly have happened because Yanagi didn't know Sanada or Yukimura until junior high, but I'm the author, so suck it.**

**

* * *

**

**8.**

Yanagi, though he would never admit it to anyone, did take offence to the names people called him.

He still remembered one time, back when he was in grade school, when some boy became jealous when he had received the highest grade on a test. During a break, the boy pulled him aside, called him a know-it-all wienie, and then ripped his test in half. Yanagi had put on a strong face, but the second they got outside to the playground for recess, Yanagi found Sanada and demanded to talk to him.

"What's wrong?" Sanada had asked as they walked behind the trees so no one could see them.

Yanagi hadn't been crying, but to someone like Sanada who knew Yanagi better than the back side of his hand, it was obvious the data master was in distress.

So Yanagi explained the situation to his friend, which only left Sanada to say, "Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words will never hurt you."

"Well, whoever came up with that never got called a wienie!"

And that was the last time Yanagi discussed the bullies to anyone. Of course, when they entered junior high and became National level tennis players, the bullies stopped, but the looks didn't. People always looked at him like he was a freak, like he was a computer in a human shell. But Yukimura and Sanada stood by him, even if he did sound like a computer at times.

Yanagi was sitting in the living area of his and Akaya's suite, reading a rather large book. Akaya was watching the TV from his spot on the floor, flipping the channel every now and again while mumbling comments about the show or commercial that was on a particular channel.

"Akaya," Yanagi said, flipping the page of his book, "there is a seventy-two percent chance that channel fifteen will have a show you'll enjoy."

Akaya made a noise then flipped the channel.

Oh, Akaya stood by him, too.

"Sempai," Akaya said after setting the remote down, "what's the chance of this trip being fun?"

Yanagi stopped reading and thought for a moment. "Six," he finally said. "But, that only factors in last year's exercises, which were a complete joke. If Sakaki-san and Ryuzaki-san have come up with more efficient exercise then the percent will increase. Why do you ask?"

Akaya shrugged. "I'm just bored."

"Why don't you go find Hiyoshi-kun? It will be beneficial for you to have good relationships with the other captains, in case you need to arrange a practice match, and there is a ninety-nine percent chance Hiyoshi-kun will become captain unless something happens."

Akaya just grunted in response.

Then, before Yanagi could say that there was an eighty percent chance that he would go in another minute to find Hiyoshi, the door to their suite opened up. Yanagi just turned another page in his book, already knowing it would be Yukimura at the doorway.

"Buchou," Akaya said, smiling.

_Right again,_ Yanagi thought to himself.

"Hello, Akaya, Renji," he said, giving both boys fond smiles. He sat down next to Yanagi on the sofa instead of joining Akaya on the floor. "Whatcha watching?" Yukimura asked, nudging Akaya with his foot.

"_One Piece_," Akaya replied boringly, "but I've seen this one like, two times. It's a bad one, too."

Yukimura frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that. Why don't you switch to twenty seven? It has an American horror movie on."

"There is a seventy percent chance you were just in Niou's suite," Yanagi commented without thinking.

"Yes, but it was Yagyuu who was watching it – apparently it's based off a book he had just finished reading," Yukimura said, peeking over Yanagi's arm to read a few sentences from the book. It was about pirates, from what Yukimura could figure, who were trying to find a sunken treasure. It was nothing he would be interested in, but Yanagi's mind always did fancy adventure.

"I see," Yanagi mumbled. "I will need to make a note of that later. Please remind me to write it in my notebook, Seiichi."

"Hey, hey," Akaya said, stopping Yukimura from saying that Yanagi would be completely capable of remembering that himself.

"What is it?" Yukimura asked, glancing back at the TV. "Is there nudity? I will order ten laps for every nipple I see."

Akaya rolled his eyes, mumbling, "I've seen boobs, buchou."

"Really?" Yanagi sounded interested. "From what I understand, you're homose –"

"I was just going to say I've read the book this is based on, geez," Akaya cut in, thankful Yanagi didn't continue his sentence.

"You can read?"

The boys looked over to the door way and saw Niou and Marui smirking as they walked inside. The two quickly made themselves comfortable in the suite; Marui sitting on the floor next to Akaya, and Niou sitting next to Yanagi. It was Niou who had said it, but he had imitated Marui so many times that it sounded as though Marui had said it.

"Yes, I can read," Akaya told Niou, knowing it was him who had made the comment.

"Yagyuu was watching this," Niou said, ignoring Akaya and putting his arm on the back of the sofa as he crossed his legs. "It's boring."

"Why don't you visit Hiyoshi-kun?" Yanagi asked again.

"He's weird," Akaya said, wrinkling his nose. "All he does is read, meditate, and like, not talk."

"Akaya," Yukimura said warningly.

"_Fiiine_." Akaya sighed and tossed the remote behind his head, Yanagi catching it without looking up from his book. Niou and Marui stood up to follow Akaya."Niou, hold on a second," Yukimura said.

Marui and Akaya hurried out of the suite, while Niou stayed behind. "What?" he asked.

"There is a ninety-nine percent chance that if you do not admit your feelings during this bonding camp, that you will never do so," Yanagi told him, finally looking up from his book.

Niou glared at him. "Stay out of my business, Yanagi. Same goes for you, Yukimura," Niou said, turning sharply on his heels to quickly catch up to Marui and Akaya in the hallway.

"What did they want?" Marui asked, putting an arm around Niou's shoulders and another around Akaya's, which was rather hard considering he was shorter than Niou, but the same height as Akaya.

"Nothin'."

Niou pulled away from Marui's arm, and Marui dropped his arm that had previously been around Akaya's shoulder back to his side.

When the trio finally got to Hiyoshi's suite and managed to knock on the door, it was Jirou who yelled for them to come in. Akaya opened the door and just looked at the scene before him. Jirou was on the floor, his legs spread out, and Hiyoshi was pushing on his back, stretching him.

"Are we interrupting something?" Marui asked with a hint of sexual-suggestion in his voice.

Jirou rolled his eyes. "You're always so perverted, Marui," he said, sitting up straight.

"We're just stretching," Hiyoshi explained. "Jirou-sempai said his back hurt, so I suggested stretching to –"

"Hiyoshi," Jirou whined, holding his arms up for the junior to help him up, "it hurts even more now."

_Of course it does,_ Hiyoshi sighed mentally, grabbing Jirou's arms. He lifted the smaller boy up who immediately went into a room after waving to the Rikkaidai trio.

"Huh, sempai – " Jirou had already closed the door.

_That's Atobe-buchou's room…_

Marui and Niou quickly made themselves comfortable, much like they had in Akaya's and Yanagi's suite, while Akaya didn't move an inch.

"Go ahead, make yourself comfortable," Hiyoshi said sarcastically, moving across the room. He grabbed a book off of the kitchen counter and moved back over to the suite's living area. Hiyoshi sat in the large arm chair and Akaya sat on the sofa next to his sempai.

"So," Marui drew out, unsure of what to say. He felt Akaya lean against his shoulder, letting out a tired sigh. "Is Atobe busy?"

Hiyoshi nodded towards Atobe's bedroom door, wondering how long it would take Jirou to realize he had walked into Atobe's bedroom. "He's been in there all day. Kabaji comes out from time to time to get food, but –"

"How can one guy be so busy?" Niou cut in.

Hiyoshi shrugged, opening his book. "Don't ask me."

.

Jirou's back really did hurt. It hurt so bad he couldn't think straight. All he knew was that when he hit that bed, he just groaned in relief. It hurt, but it hurt in a good way.

Atobe just blinked. He was sitting on the large king bed, his laptop in his lap, waiting for Kabaji to come back from his break (even Atobe didn't work the boy to death and allowed Kabaji to take two hour breaks when he was in his meetings – Kabaji still had another hour on this break). The blonde seemed blissfully unaware of Atobe's presence, even when he continued to work.

"Jirou," Atobe said, hoping to catch the blonde's attention before he fell into a deep sleep. That would just be troublesome because then Kabaji would have to carry him and –

"Atobe," Jirou said back, opening his eyes, not even remembering that he had closed them in the first place. "Hm, why are you in my bed? Do you want to snuggle?"

_Is he high?_

"Jirou, this is my room. You walked in here and just lied down."

Jirou, as if water had been thrown on him, shot up, whimpering in the pain that shot through his back. Suddenly he realized he was in Atobe's room. Suddenly he realized Atobe was closing his laptop. Suddenly he realized Atobe was speaking.

"What?" Jirou asked, not having caught what Atobe had said.

Atobe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I asked: why don't you lie down? I'll give you a massage, if you want."

"That's weird," Jirou said softly, his cheeks red.

"Why?" Atobe asked curiously. "Because you saw me in the nude yesterday? You've seen me naked before, Jirou. Why is now any different?"

Jirou made an inhuman noise, which Atobe interpreted as the go-ahead signal. Atobe moved his laptop aside and looked at Jirou.

"Well?" Atobe asked.

"Well, what?" Jirou asked back.

"Take off your shirt."

Jirou was now one hundred percent sure Atobe was trying to kill him by giving him a heart attack. As if walking in on him naked and dreaming about him wasn't enough to make him die a slow and miserable death…

"I'm fine, really," Jirou said, trying to weasel his way out of the massage. "Besides, you might make it worse."

"I've done this before, Jirou. I'm not a baboon who can't remember a simple act." Atobe's tone changed from his normal smooth voice to something more serious, deeper. Jirou liked the way Atobe's nostrils flared out when his voice got deeper, not that he would ever admit that to anyone.

And before Jirou could think another word, Atobe had gently laid him down and slid his hand under his shirt. Jirou was just glad that he was on his stomach, because if he had been on his back and Atobe had been feeling his chest, the blonde was sure he would have died of embarrassment. Jirou let Atobe push his shirt up to the top of his shoulders before taking the rest off and setting it on the floor.

Jirou grabbed a pillow, mumbling some noise that Atobe didn't understand.

They had done this before. Actually, they had done this quite a lot. Jirou refused to go to chiropractor, even if Atobe had paid for one to fly in from another country, so Atobe gave him weekly massages. Apparently his muscle-type and how he played tennis affected his back; Jirou never really liked biology or anatomy that much so he never understood Atobe's fancy explanations for his pain. They hadn't done this in awhile, though, because Atobe only did things that could benefit him. Nationals were over, they had lost. Atobe had nothing to gain.

"I'm going to start," Atobe said, swinging one leg over Jirou's side. He sat gently on Jirou's legs, knowing his weight wasn't enough to hurt the blonde boy. As Atobe roughed pushed his hands up from Jirou's lower back up to his shoulders, he watched the blonde's muscles contort and move to his fingers. Jirou was smaller than Atobe, but his muscles were larger than they appeared.

Jirou's face flushed bright red as he nuzzled his face into the pillow. Jirou made a noise when Atobe began to rub his neck.

"Too hard?" Atobe asked, lightening his grip.

"Not hard enough," Jirou mumbled softly.

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing."

Atobe just took it as another Jirou thing; he had come accustomed to the blonde's odd ways.

Atobe tried not to linger his touch as his hands roamed over the boy's back and neck. Sometimes, though the heir would never admit it, he wondered if someone else had ever touched Jirou like this. Jirou was a popular and had his fair share of dates, but had he ever gone that far? He had heard rumors about Jirou's sex life, though the girls who spread the rumors also claimed to have slept with Atobe himself, and those were just ridiculous lies.

"Do my shoulders more," Jirou said, his voice softer than it had even been before.

"Sit up," Atobe said, moving off of Jirou's legs.

The blonde listened and got up on his knees, hugging his pillow into his chest as Atobe put his hands on his shoulders.

"Here?" Jirou shook his head. "What about… here?" He moved his hands closer towards Jirou's neck, making the blonde boy shiver. Jirou made a cat like noise, so Atobe worked that area of Jirou's tanned skin.

"That feels _really _good." Jirou wanted to cover his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Atobe smiled, pulling his hands away, wishing he didn't have to. "Is it safe to assume that you're better?"

"Yeah, I am." Atobe moved to go back to work on his laptop. "Um, Atobe?"

_I'll just tell him, _Jirou thought. _Be a man._

"What is it?" Atobe turned to grab his laptop and when he opened it, he typed his password in without looking. Instead, he looked at Jirou.

"Nothing," Jirou said, his cheeks still flaming red.

_Way to be a man, Jirou. Way to be a man._

He swung his legs off of Atobe's bed, grabbing his shirt and heading to his room. When he got into the suite's living area, he froze.

"Jirou?" Marui questioned, immediately stopping his previous conversation. "Why are you half naked?"

_Fudge._

"He gave me a back massage, for my back," Jirou said quickly. "I'll be in my room."

Jirou slammed the door behind him.

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**A/N: How am I doing with keeping everyone in character? One of my goals for this re-write is to keep everyone in character. (Atobe is an exception because it'd be boring if he was an egotistical ass the whole fic.)**


	9. Chapter 9

**9.**

The bonding exercises Sakaki came up with were ridiculous.

The only reason the boys did the exercises was because the coaches had odd ways of figuring out if they did them or not, and because Yukimura had the responsibility of a coach. They didn't even want to do the exercises. Not because they were boring – okay, they _were_ boring; they made watching paint seem like fun – but because people got hurt and it only made the inter-school relations worse.

During the last camp, Eiji had broken Mukahi's nose, Niou and Shishido started a prank war that ended with Shishido's hair being dyed Marui-red and Niou's Oshitari-blue, someone put Sanada's hat in a tree, and Eiji started a new holiday: Steal Your Roommates' Pants Day.

Two hours before lunch started, Atobe had received an email from Sakaki telling him to take all of the boys into the forest for a walk. Of course, Sakaki also attached another two forms that needed to be filled out by the end of the day.

So Atobe gathered all of the boys in the first-floor lounge. Half of them had just woken up – it's not every day you get to miss school and practice to go to a five-star ski lodge and get to sleep in however late you want. Atobe spotted Jirou amongst the boys, making a mental note of where he was standing so he didn't have to make eye contact, and then coughed to get their attention.

"Lunch will be prepared at noon today, in two hours," Atobe told them, "and Sakaki has requested that I lead you through one of the many trails in the forest. However, I have rearranged tonight's activity to include the walk. So, until lunch, I have scheduled two hours down by the lake. But, since this is not a planned activity, it is not required."

"Are you going?" Oshitari asked. His voice sounded as though he was simply curious, but his eyes asked a completely different question: _"Do you want me to stay?"_

"I have work," Atobe said boringly. Oshitari smirked and Atobe looked away, accidentally catching Jirou's eyes. Jirou blushed, his eyes shooting to the floor. Atobe quickly shifted his glance towards the two captains. He nodded, silently saying that they were in charge, and they nodded back in understanding.

Moments later, almost all of the boys sprinted up the stairs to go get their swim trunks. Mukahi went to join the mob of boys, but Oshitari grabbed his wrist and stopped him. He whispered something into the red head's ear, and then Mukahi hurried upstairs.

Atobe watched Oshitari walk into the kitchen, but didn't think too much into it before heading back upstairs to get to work.

When Atobe got into his suite, he saw that Jirou had already changed into his swimsuit, a pair of hunter's orange board shorts. Oddly enough, they suited the blonde boy. Hiyoshi was coming out of his room in a blue swimsuit and a white T-shirt.

"This isn't a wet T-shirt contest," Jirou said, reaching for Hiyoshi's shirt. "Take it off!"

Hiyoshi held it down, refusing to let Jirou pull it up. "S-stop it!" he yelled.

Jirou pouted. "You're no fun." He turned to Atobe. "Hey, why don't you come? Work can wait, can't it?"

Atobe walked up to Jirou. He didn't know why, he just did. He seemed to do that a lot lately.

"Sorry," Atobe said, ruffling Jirou's hair. Hiyoshi gave him a weird look that he ignored, and Jirou blushed like a tomato. "I'll do tonight's activities, okay?"

"What are they?" Jirou asked, smiling at the thought of spending time with Atobe.

"That would just ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?" Atobe turned on the soles of his feet and made a beeline for his bedroom.

When the door closed, Hiyoshi mumbled, "What a weird guy," under his breath as he quickly made his way for the hallway. He stopped at the door and turned around. "Jirou-sempai, Kabaji's already downstairs. Let's go."

Jirou stopped looking at Atobe's door and sprinted towards Hiyoshi. He hoped on the younger boy's back and yelled, "Giddy up!"

.

Mukahi entered the suite he was sharing with Oshitari and Hyotei's D1, swiftly moving into the room he shared with Oshitari. The two had chosen to share a king size bed for several reasons, one of which was blatantly obvious.

He quickly pulled his shirt off, tossing it to the side. He jumped onto the bed, unzipping his jeans. He turned onto his side, looking at the door with a smile. A few moments later, Oshitari walked in holding a bottle of wine.

"That was easy," Mukahi said, getting up on his knees as Oshitari locked the door behind him. The tensai, or so people called him, pulled a small device out of his pocket. He opened the bottle of wine, crawling on the bed with Mukahi.

The red head looped his arms around Oshitari's neck, being careful not to spill the red wine on the sheets. He kissed his boyfriend deeply, but then Oshitari pushed him away. Oshitari put the bottle to his lips to take a long sip.

"It's mean to not share," Mukahi said, licking his lips.

Oshitari only smirked and took another sip. However, this time he didn't swallow. Instead, he grabbed Mukahi by the back of the head and transferred the wine into the red head's mouth, feeling the acrobat smirk against his lips.

Mukahi grabbed the bottle, setting it on the nightstand and pulled Oshitari down on top of him. He immediately wrapped his legs around the larger boy's waist, groaning at the contact. They could still hear the boys running through the halls to get downstairs. Honestly, Mukahi couldn't care less about what those idiots were doing, because Oshitari was the best damn kisser on the whole damn planet.

Oshitari rocked back onto his knees, Mukahi still in his lap even as he reached for the wine again. Mukahi grabbed Oshitari's glasses – they only got in the way – and the second the red head put them on the nightstand, he could feel Oshitari's lips against his, pushing wine into his mouth.

"Yuushi," Mukahi said, licking the wine from his lips. "I'll get drunk."

"And?" Oshitari asked before taking another sip and feeding it to Mukahi.

The red head swallowed and looked at Oshitari like a love-sick puppy. "I like it when you take advantage of me when I'm drunk."

Oshitari set the wine down, and lowered Mukahi onto his back.

.

"Ne, Tezuka!" Fuji shouted, quickly moving around the boys as they walked through the thick, hot, humid forest to reach the lake. Kabaji was leading them silently, moving through the forest like he had lived there his whole life.

"Hm?" Tezuka turned his head. He had been walking with Oishi, like always, when the older (yet oddly shorter) boy jumped onto his back. "Fuji, you're heavy. Please get off my back."

Fuji pouted, wiggling back onto the ground. Yukimura giggled into his hand from behind them. "You're really no fun," Fuji said. "Besides, I'm not _that _heavy. Oh, and I have a question."

"What is it?" Tezuka asked.

"Is eating jell-o murder?"

Tezuka was quiet for a moment. Oishi just looked at the two as though they were insane – he never understood Tezuka's and Fuij's friendship. "Well," Tezuka finally said, "my mom doesn't eat it."

Fuji hummed. "I guess it is, then. Your mom's still vegan, right?"

Tezuka didn't nod, he just made a noise to answer the question, but Fuji understood him – how he understood Tezuka's grunts was a mystery. Then again, Fuji was a mystery in general; not many people ask if eating jell-o is murder.

"Hey, Genchirou," Yukimura said, slowing down a bit so he could be side by side with his friend, "do you think eating jell-o is murder?"

"That's a ridiculous question," Sanada said without thinking. "Why are you even asking?"

Yukimura didn't answer and stood still, falling even farther back in the mob of boys. He began to walk again when Yanagi grabbed his wrist.

"What's wrong with you, Seiichi?" Yanagi asked, letting go of Yukimura's wrist when he figured his captain would actually walk by himself.

"Nothing," Yukimura replied with a smile. He looked forward and picked a random member from their team so he could divert the attention off of himself. Yukimura jogged through the boys shouting, "Jackal! That posture is ridiculous!"

_Seiichi,_ Yanagi sighed mentally, _you're easier to read than Akaya._

.

Oshitari rolled underneath the covers, his leg bumping against Mukahi's. The tensai opened his eyes and saw that the red head was fast asleep. Oshitari cursed under his breath and grabbed his lover's shoulder. He shook him a few times, but there was no response.

"Gakuto, wake up," Oshitari said, wrapping his arms around his bare body. "I'm still in the mood…" he whispered, nipping at Mukahi's neck.

Mukahi still didn't wake up. Oshitari pulled back, mumbling something about a drunken idiot. He sat up, looking down at Mukahi. He figured he had three options. One: try to wake Mukahi up so they could have sex again, two: go find Atobe, or three: go to the bathroom and get rid of his little problem himself.

It was an easy decision.

.

The Atobe family didn't own the lake. In fact, no one did. The Atobe Ski Lodge was one of the larger cabins around the lake, but there were several others that used the lake as well, though those were mostly private cabins and not commercial cabins like the lodge.

The trees around the lake stood tall, but the mountains stood taller, and the lake sunk deeper. Kabaji warned them that at some parts of the lake it is over a thousand feet deep. They laughed when he said that, not believing him. There were a few docks around the lake, one of which did belong to the Atobe family. There was a boat house some ways down the lakeside, but it was shared between the cabin owners. The majority of the lakeside was coarse sand, but some parts of the lakeside were covered in smooth, dark rocks.

"Cannonball!" Momo yelled as he ran down the dock on the lake, jumping straight into the murky water. A few others followed after him, while others stayed on the sandy lakeside.

Yukimura sat in the sand, his toes in the water. Part of him wanted Sanada to come sit next to him so they could talk, but he didn't let the disappointment of Sanada going off to talk to Tezuka get to him. The captain sighed, looking out at the lake.

"Niou!" Marui yelled as the trickster splashed the red head. Niou only laughed, but then Akaya jumped in next to Marui, and the red head acted as though Niou had never splashed him.

"It's sad," Yanagi said, joining Yukimura in the sand.

"What is, Renji?" Yukimura asked, looking at his friend instead of the lake. Yanagi had brought his notebook, and was wearing an unbuttoned white shirt in addition to his swimsuit. It was almost as though the data master had no intention of going into the water, which he probably didn't.

"That Niou doesn't say anything," Yanagi said, opening up his notebook and pulling the pen out of its spine. He began to write, which only made Yukimura smile. "Is something amusing?" Yanagi asked.

"No," Yukimura lied, looking back out at the lake. "I certainly wasn't smiling because you're writing in a notebook about Niou's crush on Marui instead of relaxing for a change."

"You have your methods, and I have mine."

"Well, at least I'm relaxed," Yukimura said, lying down in the sand.

"There is a ninety-six percent chance that you're lying to me." Yukimura sat back up, giving Yanagi a look. "Your shoulders are tensed, you're wiggling your ears as if your straining to listen to something – I'm assuming it's Genchirou's and Tezuka's conversation, which, by the way, is ten feet out of hearing distance – and you didn't put on a swimsuit, you're wearing khaki shorts, so it's obvious you don't want to swim."

"Just – ugh!" Yukimura groaned, unable to think of the words as he looked at Yanagi. "Just leave me alone."

Yukimura lied back down, listening to Yanagi stand up and leave.

.

Atobe was in his suite's living area, sitting on the sofa with a hard-back book in his hands. He had finished the paper work an hour or so after the boys had left, and had taken it upon himself to spend the next hour reading a book. It wasn't anything at the award-winning level, but it was enough to keep the heir turning page after page of the novel to see what happened to the unfortunate hero.

He was so wrapped up in the book that he didn't even notice the door was being opened. However, Atobe did hear the door close. He looked up, wondering if he had been reading for an hour already – he could have sworn he had only been reading for ten or so minutes.

"Oh, it's you," Atobe said before he turned his attention back to his book.

Oshitari chuckled, turning the lock on the door behind him, and walked over to the living area. "Yes, it's me."

"Why don't you go find Mukahi?" Atobe asked as Oshitari sat on the sofa next to him. "I'm sure he –"

"I don't want to be with Gakuto right now," Oshitari cut in, taking the book from Atobe's hands.

"You're drunk," Atobe said, watching Oshitari's hands fumble with the corner of the page.

"You're sexy" Oshitari shot back, putting the book on the table.

"We've been here for two days, and you're already drunk. Why do you insist on –"

Before Atobe could finish, Oshitari had grabbed his shoulders and pushed his back against the sofa. He said something in protest, but he couldn't remember what. Oshitari put a knee between Atobe's legs, grabbed both of his wrists with one hand, and the heir's chin with his other hand.

"Oshi –"

Atobe's words were cut short by Oshitari's mouth smothering his own. Atobe's eyes went wide in shock and he jerked his arms around, hoping to pry them from Oshitair's hand. Unfortunately, Atobe knew that that was never going to happen – he had taught Oshitari his tennis grip, and Atobe knew just how good Oshitari's grip was. He wouldn't have taught it to the tensai, if he had known the bastard was going to use it like this.

Atobe felt Oshitari's teeth scrap along his Adam's apple. His breath went rigid, his body became tense, his wrists began to burn, and his stomach began to twist. The worst part about Oshitari's touch was that it felt _good_. Atobe knew he should be revolted by the tensai's touch, but Atobe couldn't bring himself to think that. He knew it was wrong, he knew that he shouldn't like it, but he did.

"Atobe," Oshitari whispered, planting kisses along Atobe's jaw down to his neck.

"S-shut up and get off of me," Atobe ordered. His voice was weak, his fingers were desperately trying to scratch at Oshitari's wrist, and Oshitari's knee was adding the most wonderful friction that made Atobe's body numb.

"Don't you remember the nights we spent together?" Oshitari asked as he continued to kiss Atobe's neck over and over and over again. "The nights we spent awake, kissing, touching…?"

"Get off of me!" Atobe yelled, trying to bring his legs up to try and kick Oshitari in the stomach. However, for some reason, his legs didn't move. He wanted so desperately for them to move, they just wouldn't.

Kissing Oshitari again was like a drug – Atobe's body went numb, he stopped fighting back, and the memories of those nights came flooding back. His body told him not to move, that it felt too good to move, but his mind was yelling that it was wrong, that Oshitari was with someone else, and that if Jirou found out it would break his heart.

_Why am I thinking about Jirou at a time like this?_ Atobe asked himself. Just thinking "Jirou" was all he needed for his brain to replace Oshitari's hand with Jirou's. It was all he needed for Oshitari's mouth to become Jirou's small lips.

"Jirou," Atobe hissed as Oshitari moved his knee between his legs.

Oshitari snickered into Atobe's neck. "Oh? Jirou, is it? So you have a thing for cute boys?" Atobe thrashed his arms, but Oshitari's grip didn't change. "Do you dream about him? Do you dream that he's underneath you, his legs around your waist, his nails dragging along your back?"

"Stop it."

"Does he scream in your dreams? Does he moan your name? Does he beg you to give it to him harder, deeper?"

"Shut up," Atobe hissed, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Atobe," Oshitari said his voice soft like Jirou's. Atobe flinched, his eyes widening in surprise. Oshitari smirked as he pushed Atobe's sweater up with his free hand. "You can call his name, you can pretend I'm him – I'll _be _him, if you want. I'll call out your name," he said, his voice still a perfect match to Jirou's. "I'll moan. I'll scream. I'll do anything you want, A-to-be."

"No thanks."

"Fine," he said, his voice completely back to its normal, deep tone. And, within seconds, his lips were on Atobe's.

.

"Tezuka," Inui said, checking his cell phone as he walked up to his captain.

"What is it, Inui?"

"If we want time to shower before lunch, then we'll need to head back now."

Tezuka pulled out his own phone. He opened it, became thoroughly confused, and then closed it. "We still have forty minutes, though."

"Yes, but it will take at least twenty minutes to return to the cabin and chances are people will want to take showers before lunch – this water is anything but clean."

Tezuka sighed and yelled for Yukimura to come over. When the captain didn't move a muscle, Tezuka stood up. Tezuka began to walk to where Yukimura was sitting, and Fuji came along, too, having just gotten out of the water. The Seigaku captain calmly explained the situation and asked for Yukimura's thoughts.

"Do you_ really_ want to know what I think?" Yukimura asked, smiling and refusing to stand up.

Yanagi hurried over, cutting into the conversation before someone threw a punch that they were really going to regret. "I agree with Sadaharu; we should go now."

"Well then," Yukimura said, wiping his hands clear of sand once he got up on his feet, his smile fake, "let's go."

* * *

**A/N: Uh… don't kill me? **


	10. Chapter 10

**10.**

Oshitari and Atobe never really had a relationship.

They started off as teammates, and then they became "friends," if you could call them sitting next to each other during a game and not saying a word friendship. And then they both found themselves to be single and hormonally out-of-whack teenagers. It was only natural for the two of them to eventually become something… more.

Of course, that didn't mean they had feelings for one another. No, it was just the opposite. They were physically attracted to one another and that was it. They had stopped their antics after Nationals, seeing as how it would be pointless to continue something that had no true purpose besides physical gratification, and Oshitari began to date Mukahi shortly after. Atobe, however, didn't date anyone. He did invite a girl out to dinner every now and again to make his father happy, or treat a lucky fellow to dinner, but he didn't do anything more than that. None of those girls or dinner dates felt right; he would rather be playing games with Jirou, reading a nice book (with Jirou there, of course), or watching a tennis match with Jirou – basically anything with Jirou.

So when Oshitari left Atobe's suite with a giant smirk on his face, Atobe had no clue what had just happened. He was laying on the sofa, shirtless, his pants unzipped and – his eyes caught site of the coffee table. That was _not_ frosting on the table. He reached into his pocket, pulling out his cell phone to check the time.

11:32

Okay, that was good. That meant he still had time before the others got back and –

The door knob to the suite turned and Atobe's eyes went wide. He rambled off a few profanities, not caring if anyone heard them, put his book over the so-not-frosting that was on the table, zipped his pants back up, and closed his eyes.

"Atobe," Jirou called, bouncing into the suite. "We got back early." He spotted Atobe on the couch, his top off, and he froze dead in his tracks.

"Is he asleep?" Hiyoshi asked, walking around Jirou. He walked over to the end of the sofa, poked Atobe's foot, got a grunt in return, and shrugged. The second year walked into the bathroom, mumbling something about a shower.

Jirou walked over to the sofa, his mind working faster than it had ever worked before. He sat down around Atobe's waist and gently shook Atobe's arm.

"Atobe," Jirou said softly. "Come on, wake up. Kabaji's downstairs checking on lunch."

_Go away,_ Atobe's mind pleaded. Oshitari's voice had been exactly like Jirou's, and even though the heir knew it wasn't Jirou, the thought of Jirou doing that still – _Stop it, Keigo, control yourself._

"Atobe," Jirou whined, shaking Atobe a little harder.

Atobe opened his eyes, hoping those drama classes he took actually did something to help him as an actor. He sat up, his face almost an inch away from Jirou's. Immediately, Atobe moved farther back on the sofa and Jirou stood up to add more space between them.

"I, um," Jirou said, stumbling over his words, "I'll be in my room, waiting for Hiyoshi to take a shower. Kabaji's, um, yeah."

Jirou stopped himself and hurried into his room, pressing his back against the door the second it closed.

_Why can't I talk to him without my chest pounding?_ Jirou asked himself.

Atobe swung his legs off the sofa, sighing at the feeling of his feet touching the wood. He grabbed his sweater from the floor and picked up the book. He cleaned up the so-not-frosting from the table and the book – why Oshitari had to spit it onto the table was beyond him. Atobe grabbed his things, headed for his bedroom, chucked his book into his the trashcan, and locked the door behind him.

.

When Mukahi opened his eyes, he saw Oshitari lying right next to him under the covers. The tensai was completely naked, his glasses were back on the nightstand, and everything was as it had been when Oshitari originally left.

"Hm," Mukahi hummed, curling into Oshitari's chest.

"Did you dream about me?" Oshitari teased, adding a smile as he kissed the acrobat's forehead. A small drop of regret and guilt rushed through his veins when Mukahi said, "I always dream about you."

Oshitari reached over Mukahi, grabbed his glasses and the top sheet off the bed to cover himself up. He walked around the room, picking up his clothes. He noticed Mukahi was watching him, so he went ahead and dropped the sheet.

"If you do that, then we might miss lunch," Mukahi said, reaching for the wine bottle. He took a long sip and smiled at Oshitari when a line of the red liquid rolled out of his mouth. Oshitari dropped his clothes, put his glasses on the nightstand, and got back in the bed.

Guilt or not, horny was horny.

.

When Marui walked out of his suite's bathroom he had one hand wrapped holding the towel around his waist in place and his other hand running a towel through his hair. He was humming some American song under his breath as he passed Jackal. He nodded towards his partner and swiftly went into his room. He didn't bother to lock the door behind him since he saw Jackal go into the bathroom.

"_Under moonlit skies we'll be hangin' like a cigarette_," Marui sang, tossing his towels onto the bed before heading over to his dresser. He sorted through his clothes, nodding his head to the music in his head as he pulled on a pair of boxers.

"_Tonight's like a knife; would you cut me with your kiss?_" Marui grabbed his hair brush off of his dresser and grabbed it with both his hands. Then, as if his terrible air-singing skills weren't humiliating enough, he added in a few terrible dance moves in there, too.

He got up on the bed, singing and dancing, drops of water flying from his hair. He was so wrapped up in his little show that he didn't hear the door open or close. He was so busy doing kicks and pretending his hair brush was a guitar to realize someone was leaning against his door smirking. He was so busy making a fool out of himself that he didn't realize Niou was laughing at him.

When Marui finally did see Niou, he froze.

"Nice moves," Niou commented, clapping and laughing.

Marui dropped his hair brush and jumped off the bed. He walked over to Niou and punched him in the arm, hard, and then walked back over to his dresser to put on a shirt and pants.

"Geez," Niou said, rubbing his arm as he watched Marui step into a pair of shorts, "you punch pretty hard for a girl."

Marui rolled his eyes, tugging his shirt over his head, and then leaving his room to go into the suite's living area. "Whatever, let's just get some lunch."

Niou laughed and put an arm around Marui's shoulder once they got into the hallway. "Don't worry, I sing and dance like an idiot, too."

"I don't sing and dance like an idiot; I rock out like an idiot," he corrected.

Niou rolled his eyes. The two walked through the hallway and second floor lounge without another word. When they got to the stairs, Niou moved his arm off of Marui's shoulder and grabbed his wrist to keep him from going down.

"Marui," Niou said, rubbing the back of his head with his other hand. "I –"

Then the world decided to kick Niou in the balls. Akaya came running up and jumped on Marui's back. Niou let go of Marui's wrist.

"What were you going to say?" Marui asked, putting his hands on Akaya's thighs so he didn't fall.

"Nothin'."

Marui nodded and hurried down the stairs with Akaya on his back. Niou watched them with daggers for a second or two until Yagyuu walked up to him, adjusting his glasses

"You know, Niou-kun, despite being called 'stairs' most people do more than stare – I believe some even walk down them from time to time," Yagyuu said. Niou didn't give a smart-ass response so Yagyuu looked down the stairs and saw Marui letting Akaya off his back at the bottom. "Jealously is an ugly thing, Niou-kun," was all Yagyuu said before going downstairs.

Niou ignored Yagyuu's comment, but it was almost as though he was jealous. Almost. Niou Masaharu did not become jealous, especially of stupid kohai who wouldn't keep their grimy little hands off of Marui. Besides, why would he get so worked up over Marui? He's just funny, attractive, and had a smile that could make him go weak at his knees.

_Puri,_ Niou thought, heading downstairs to meet up with the others.

He most certainly was not jealous.

* * *

**A/N: Kudos to anyone who knows what Marui was singing. Kudos and a cookie to anyone who got Yagyuu's stare-stair joke.**


	11. Chapter 11

**11.**

Jirou wasn't a weak person.

He went to Hyotei after all, and no one, not even Jirou, could make it through that school being all puppy dogs and unicorns. People used to pass him off as weak, even in the tennis club. So one day, when some boys were harassing some girl, Jirou walked up to them.

"Hey, Endo," Jirou said, his voice flat.

The tall, large boy laughed and turned away from the girl. "Akutgawa, what do you want?"

"Leave her alone."

Endo grabbed Jirou's shirt. "What if I don't? Are_ you_ going to hit _me_?"

The girl mouthed "help," and Jirou gave Endo the fastest, strongest punch he could muster – he didn't even think about what he was doing until after he had done it. He kicked the larger boy, too, and added in a glare that would make Yukimura feel powerless. When Endo went down to the ground, crawled away then sprinted down the hall, the girl kissed his cheek, and people began to clap for him… He felt powerful for the first time in his life.

He knew what appearance meant, he knew what money got you, and he knew what relationships meant – he just didn't like it. He still went to Taco Bell with Mukahi and Shishido after tennis games, like they did when they when they used to play on the street courts. He never understood how people could live those fast passed life styles, and he hated to admit that sometimes he caught up in that glamorous lifestyle. He hated those people.

Marui was one of the many reasons Jirou hated that sort of life. He was actually friends with Marui, not just some fanboy. Marui wouldn't go as far as to invite Jirou over to spend the night with the team, but the two did have their fair share of sleepovers and lunch-outs. But it's not like Jirou invited the Rikkaidai tensai over to hang out with his team either. Naturally, the teams knew the two were friends, but that didn't mean they agreed with the two playing tennis at Jirou's house every other Sunday.

Sometimes, Jirou wished he never got accepted into Hyotei. Maybe then he could be friends with the people he wanted to be friends with and burp after chugging down a large Coca-Cola without being judged. Maybe then he wouldn't have that feeling in his stomach whenever he saw Atobe.

Jirou was one of the last ones to get to the dining hall, because Hiyoshi took insanely long showers and Jirou refused to walk around with lake water in his hair. He opened up the door, everyone looked at him, and he hurried and sat down next to Hiyoshi, Shishido and Ohtori. Atobe was standing up, his eyes locked on the blonde as he walked through the room.

"As I was saying," Atobe said from a different table, "at five we will go for the hike. We will meet in the first-floor lounge. Are there any questions?"

No one said anything, probably because they were drooling over the hot food in front of them. Atobe sighed and sat down, and everyone began to eat like pigs. Jirou grabbed a bowl of French onion soup and his eyes caught site of Atobe's table. Then he shifted his glance to where Oshitari and Mukahi had been sitting yesterday – Oshitari was there, but Mukahi wasn't.

"Do you know where Mukahi is?" Jirou asked.

Shishido nodded. "He's drunk. We got back, the two were spooning –"

"It was really awkward," Ohtori cut in.

"–and we told them it was time for lunch. Mukahi was sort of out of it, so we left him. I think he passed out right before we left. He was on his side, though, so it's all good."

Ohtori nodded as if to reinforce what Shishido had just said. Ohtori never really said much about Mukahi and Oshitari's relationship. Romance was an awkward topic for him in general, and a homosexual relationship just made things worse in his innocent little mind. He might have been the one person at Hyotei who was innocent.

Jirou quickly shoved his soup, salad, and bread into his mouth, making small talk with Shishido and Ohtori as he did so. "I'm going to go check on Mukahi; excuse me," he said, standing up. He wiped his mouth in a very proper manner, nodded to the head of the dinner (in this case, Atobe, though the heir was too preoccupied with a conversation with Tezuka to notice), and hurried out of the dining hall.

_Maybe Mukahi got drunk because Oshitari and he had a fight, _Jirou thought as he hurried upstairs. As he walked down one of the halls towards Mukahi's suite, he heard a loud bang from behind a door. Without thinking, the blonde opened up the door, and saw Niou leaning against the wall, a pillow at his feet, and Marui fuming with anger on the sofa.

"What's going on?" Jirou asked, walking into the suite and closing the door behind him.

Marui gave Jirou a fake, soft smile. "Nothing."

"Who likes who?" Jirou asked with a sigh, sitting on the sofa next to Marui.

Niou raised an eyebrow and Marui popped his green bubble. Then the red head turned his head so fast that Jirou could have sworn he heard it crack, and Niou held his hands up. "I didn't say squat," Niou said, putting his hands back down.

Marui looked back at Jirou. "I go to Hyotei, duh," Jirou said it as if that meant everything, which it did. He had to figure out who liked who or else he would be out of the loop, and that was not a good thing at his school. "So, who likes who?"

Marui grabbed another pillow and pulled it into his chest. "Akaya," Marui mumbled, burying his face into the pillow.

"You like Kirihara?" Jirou was shocked. Marui never said anything about that. In fact, Jirou would have bet his life that Marui and Niou had a thing. But, then again, Jirou wasn't perfect and had messed up in the love-doctor area on more than one occasion.

Niou nodded and walked over to the arm chair, sitting down with a plop. "He has for a month or two."

"Why haven't you told him?" Jirou asked. "Is he straight?"

"No. Maybe. I don't know," Marui groaned. "It's really complicated, Jirou. I don't want to bother you."

"I don't mind," Jirou said, smiling. Marui had been a bother to Jirou before, so the blonde figured it was okay if he bothered his friend sometimes, too.

"If you don't tell him, I will," Niou said, flipping through the TV guide.

"Fine," Marui sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "A few months ago, Yukimura assigned us all to tutor Akaya in our special fields to teach him captain stuff, you know? Like, Jackal had to do defense, and Niou taught him in-game psychology. Then I had to teach him doubles. So we partnered up and played a bunch of matches together. I guess I just sort of got so used to his company or something.

"He's really funny, Jirou, and he isn't as stupid as people think. He's no Yanagi, but he's not in danger of being kicked off the team like the rumors say. Plus, he's really nice and doesn't gossip like all of those boring girls do. I don't know, I guess I just like him."

_He's lying,_ Jirou thought, _and he keeps looking at Niou, but…_

Jirou looked over at Niou who seemed far too interested in that TV guide. The trickster had crossed his legs and had his lips pressed together, almost as though he wasn't paying attention to a word Marui said.

"I think you should tell him," Jirou said, his eyes on Niou. The trickster's eyes shot up from the TV guide and set them right on Jirou, glaring with his entire mite. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen? He says no? You should just go for it if you like him that much."

"I can't," Marui said, his nails digging into the pillow. "He's my friend. What if we can't be friends after it?"

"What if you're more than friends after it?" Jirou asked him, glancing at Niou, who quickly returned is attention towards the TV guide.

Marui ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I don't know, Jirou. I'll think about it."

Jirou stood up. "Well, if you want to tell him, tell me first, okay?" He laughed softly and turned on the soles of his shoes. He left the suite and stood in the hallway.

He was going somewhere, wasn't he?

_Oh, yeah, Mukahi! _

Jirou sighed mentally as he hurried down the maze of a cabin. He had his own problems, yet he was using all of his energy to solve other people's problems. Sometimes, he wanted someone to look him in the eye and ask what was wrong. Atobe used to ask him that – key word: used.

When Jirou found the suite Mukahi was in, he opened the door, and spotted Mukahi on the sofa watching TV. He walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Jirou?" Mukahi turned off the TV and looked at him. "Why are you here? You hate talking to me when I'm hung over."

Jirou rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Shouldn't you get something to eat? Doesn't that like, help a hangover?" Jirou asked. He wouldn't know because he's never been drunk.

"Nah. It works for some people, but I just puke."

"Ah." Mukahi flipped the TV back on when Jirou didn't say anything. Jirou sat there for a moment, and then decided he might as well ask. "So," Jirou said, causing Mukahi to turn the TV off again, "how are things with you and Oshitari?"

"Okay," Mukahi replied boringly. "Why? Did something happen?"

"You're drunk?" Jirou suggested, hoping that sounded like a logical response because it sure as hell did in his mind.

"Drunken sex hurts less."

Jirou cringed. "Ew. Mental image. Just… _ew_."

Mukahi smiled and lied down on the sofa. "Don't be such a virgin, it's lame."

"I am a virgin," Jirou reminded him. Sure, he had had his fair share of dates with girls (and wet dreams of Atobe recently), but he'd never done more than a few heavy make-out sessions. He had enough respect for all the girls he dated, and he knew that he didn't want to have sex at this age.

"That's no excuse."

The two went silent again, and Mukahi flipped the TV back on. The acrobat even went ahead and put the subtitles on for Jirou because the volume was so low. But after twenty or so minutes, Jirou stood up to leave. Mukahi looked up at him. "Can't you stay? Or is there an activity?"

"There's a hike in –" Jirou pulled out his phone and checked the time " – four hours, at five."

"Can't you just stay? We never talk anymore."

Jirou smiled and sat on the sofa next to Mukahi. The acrobat smiled. Now _that's_ the Mukahi he used to know. The old Mukahi, before he started to date Oshitari, was innocent, clueless, and honest. Now he was just a liar and sex-obsessed. Jirou hated it. He hated what Oshitari had done to his friend. He hated that he didn't have the guts to tell Mukahi that.

* * *

**A/N: And there's more drama to come.  
**


	12. Chapter 12

**12.**

Momo, like many other Seigaku members, had a personal motto: fight.

Momo was actually the one who took it to a new level. He figured that if something in life is worth having, then it's worth fighting for. Quitting was out of the question, because when things got tough, he could always fight some more. Whether it is tennis, or love, or a friend, Momo figured he should always fight until the end. That way he could look back at an old man and smile because he had tried, and not regret what might have happened.

Momo figured that was why his rivalry with Kaidoh was so intense – neither wanted to lose then regret not having tried their hardest. Of course, both boys had their different methods, but they liked their own ways because after every match they fought (in and off the court) both felt a rush of energy in their veins. It was a rush of accomplishment, of seeing how far they've come.

So, naturally, when Momo walked into the sauna and saw Kaidoh sitting on a bench, a towel around his waist, Momo knew another fight was about to happen.

"It's pretty hot in here," Momo whistled, sitting down across from Kaidoh.

Kaidoh leaned forward and poured more water onto the rocks, causing more steam to fill the small room. "Not hot enough," Kaidoh said, closing his eyes.

Momo snickered. "You'll cook if you stay in here too long. How long have you been in here? You disappeared after lunch."

"Why do you care?" Kaidoh asked, opening his eyes and looking at Momo through the steam.

Momo held his hands up in defense. "Hey, calm down, I was just asking a question."

Kaidoh did his signature hiss and closed his eyes again. "I've been in here since after lunch."

"Geez. I'm about to get out and I've been in here for a minute!" Momo laughed.

"Then leave."

Momo narrowed his eyes. "I'm not leaving until you do."

Kaidoh didn't say anything in return. He let out a long sigh, occasionally added more water, but didn't say a word. Momo hummed a song, Kaidoh tuned him out.

"Hey," Momo finally said after a good five minutes of silence, "do you think you'll be captain next year?"

Kaidoh opened his eyes. "Don't talk about stupid things."

Momo laughed. "You so totally think you'll be captain, don't you?" Kaidoh hissed, and then the two went silent again. Once again, it was Momo who broke the silence. "Viper… we're going to kick some major ass next year."

Kaidoh added more water. "That's obvious, isn't it?"

Momo just smiled, and he was pretty sure that if there wasn't steam, he would see Kaidoh smile, too. Or not. Kaidoh has always been a little depressing to hang around.

"Okay, I give," Momo said, holding onto his towel so it wouldn't fall as he stood up.

Kaidoh stood up, also holding his towel, and hissed.

Momo smiled. "You little snake, you were waiting for me to leave. I bet you ten bucks you pass out going upstairs," Momo said, holding the sauna door open for Kaidoh.

"Future captains don't do pansy things, like pass out," he said, glaring.

Momo growled. Or roared. It sounded like a combination of the two. "I'm going to be captain," Momo said, walking down the hall.

Kaidoh huffed. "No. I am."

And, before they even realized it, their casual walk through the cabin turned into a full on sprint to their suites upstairs. Of course, running up the stairs side-by-side in nothing but towels was one of their more awkward fights (once they realized what they were doing, of course).

.

Akaya tossed and turned on his bed. He had his cell phone in one hand and the screen displayed a text from Marui:

_u r sooo stpid  
but thts what I lke abt u  
:)_

Akaya just stared at the screen. What did Marui mean? Like as in like, or _like_? He thought about texting Marui back, asking him what he meant, but he didn't want Marui to think he was stupid.

He groaned. He was giving himself a headache thinking about it. He could always ask Yanagi, but Yanagi always used big words and would probably say, "Oh, Akaya-kun, it took you that long to realize it?" He could ask Yagyuu, but he would tell Niou who would say, "Grow a pair." He could always ask Yukimura, but his captain never showed any interest in any part of his life unless tennis was involved.

But he needed to talk to someone! He wasn't good with relationships. He had a girlfriend once, and that was when he was six. And she broke up with him because some boy had a bigger swing set. How was he supposed to know what "like" meant when he couldn't even keep a six year old girl happy with his swing set?

He snapped his phone shut and rolled off his bed. He walked through the suite's living area, glad Yanagi wasn't there, and hurried down the hall. He walked up to the room he wanted and opened up the door, not even bothering to knock. The second he opened up the door, he thought, _What the fuck am I doing?_

Akaya walked into Sanada's suite and saw him reading a book. Akaya smiled inwardly because Sanada wore glasses when he read. He didn't use them at school, though, only when he was reading a novel. Akaya had only seen Sanada in glasses once or twice, and it was still an amusing site.

"Akaya," Sanada said, closing his book and taking off his glasses. "Yukimura and I aren't sharing a room."

"I know," he said, nodding before he closed the door behind him. "Actually, I came here to talk to you about something else…"

Sanada furrowed his brow and waited for Akaya to sit down to ask, "What?"

"W-why are you and Buchou fighting?"

"We're not fighting." Sanada narrowed his eyes. "Now what do you really want?"

Akaya pulled his phone out of his back pocket without a second of hesitation. He scrolled through his inbox and showed Sanada the message. Sanada's dead-set face went through three phases. One: confusion, two: surprise, and three: more confusion. Akaya closed his phone and put it back in his pocket.

"I don't get it," Akaya said softly.

Sanada just blinked at the younger boy. "And you came to me with this because…?"

"I don't know!" Akaya groaned in frustration. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Sorry. I just don't know what to do, and you always know what to do, so…"

"And you came to me with this because…?" Sanada asked again.

Did the younger boy expect _Sanada_ to know what to do? Sure, Sanada talked to girls, but he had never felt romantic towards any of them. There was that one girl who he kissed because it was at a dance, and he just assumed that was what he was supposed to do. Other than that, he was clueless.

"Never mind. I'll – I'll figure it out myself," he sighed, standing up to make a bee-line for the door.

But before Akaya could take another step, Sanada said, "You're going to be a captain. If I just told you what to do, what would you learn? You're going to be confused, and you need to know how to work things out by yourself."

Akaya nodded and closed the door behind him.

* * *

**A/N: I snickered to myself while writing this. I just had this picture of Sanada going "WTF?" when Akaya walked in, but in glasses, because Sanada looks like a glasses man.**


	13. Chapter 13

**13.**

Yukimura was not a porcelain doll that would break if handled too roughly.

He, like everyone else who dared to call themselves a Rikkaidai tennis player, would rather be broken than be a pretty, little doll. He had gone through his hardships, had his breakdowns, and had survived to tell the tale. He didn't understand why everyone seemed to treat him differently.

Well, not everyone treated him differently.

The regulars treated him like they always had. Niou gave him inappropriate back sass. Marui popped his gum in his face when Yukimura told him to spit it out. Akaya challenged him every Saturday. Yagyuu still missed practice from time to time, knowing Yukimura would believe whatever insane reason he came up with. Jackal still brought Marui cake, even though there was a strict no food policy. Yanagi said the data, even if it was harsh.

Sanada was the only exception. Even though Yukimura assured him that he was fine, the boy still refused to tell Yukimura everything and act as though his captain had never been in the hospital. Yukimura wouldn't go as far as to say he hated his friend for treating him like a doll, but it sure as hell pissed him off.

As Yukimura walked down the stairs to the first floor lounge, he saw Sanada standing at the bottom. He looked at him, thought about asking, "Where's your buddy Tezuka?" but decided against it. Instead he ignored Sanada's "Yukimura" and walked right to the group of boys who were gathering around Atobe, who was standing next to two boxes.

"Is everyone here?" Atobe asked, doing a mental head count. He only counted twenty three, not including himself, and looked more closely at the heads he was counting. "Is Mukahi coming?"

Jirou and Hiyoshi shook their heads at the same time. Jirou saw Hiyoshi shake his head and looked at him. "How do you know? I've been with him since I left lunch."

"He texted me," Hiyoshi mumbled in response.

Jirou really didn't know what to say to that. He knew Mukahi was close to Hiyoshi, but Hiyoshi didn't seem to want for Mukahi to be close to him, even though they continued to play doubles together after Nationals. Hiyoshi had closed himself off from the world long ago, and he wasn't about to let someone like Mukahi change his way of life.

Atobe coughed. "So he's not coming?"

"No," Hiyoshi said, putting his hands into his shorts' pockets awkwardly.

Atobe sighed, closing his eyes. Mukahi would be the death of him – he never did any bonding exercises, no matter how important they were. When Atobe opened his eyes, he saw Oshitari at the back of the boys. The tensai just smiled, amused.

Atobe ignored him and began his speech. "I have GPSs and flashlights for everyone. You will travel in groups of two, randomly chosen, and will scout out places for the HoDCC. If you do not return to the cabin within two hours, someone will call your cell phone. If something happens to your GPS, call someone immediately; do not keep walking. Any questions?"

"What's the HoDCC?" Momo asked before any of the other second years (or Ryoma) could ask. Atobe had almost forgotten this was their first camp.

"The Hide of Die Camping Challenge," Atobe said, shifting his weight to his left leg. "Every camp, on the list of bonding activities, hide-and-seek is always listed last. Usually, on the last day, we play hide-and-seek. Of course, that game is childish, so we changed the rules a bit… And, to make a long story short, we turn wherever we are staying into a war zone. I'll explain more of the HoDCC later. Just look for good hiding places. Was that simple enough for you to understand?"

Momo nodded. "Yeah, I got it," he said rudely, wishing he added "I'm not stupid."

"Tezuka has written all of our names on individual slips of paper," Atobe continued. "Tezuka."

Tezuka walked up and stood next to Atobe, a cup in his hand. Atobe dipped his hand in and drew out two slips of paper. "Yukimura and Sanada," he said.

"Perfect," Yukimura mumbled sarcastically under his breath, going up to get a GPS from the box. Sanada was right next to him getting a flashlight. The two moved off to the side, and Yukimura was anything but happy.

Atobe dipped his hand into the cup again. "Mukahi and Shishido. Since Mukahi is not coming…" Atobe reached his hand in again. "Kikumaru."

Atobe reached back into the cup.

_Yukimura and Sanada_

_Shishido and Kikumaru_

_Hiyoshi and Kirihara_

_Niou and Marui_

_Fuji and Akutagawa_

_Oishi and Tezuka_

_Kaidoh and Kabaji_

_Momo and Echizen_

_Yanagi and Inui_

_Jackal and Taka_

_Yagyuu and Ohtori_

_Atobe and Oshitari_

Atobe sighed mentally. He knew this random partner assignment wasn't going to work out. This is not what he needed right now.

Oshitari grabbed a GPS and a flashlight, smiling as he said, "At least I'm with someone on my team."

Atobe just nodded. He looked at the boys who had all moved to the side when their names were called. "Be back by seven."

They all mumbled something and hurried outside. Atobe waited for all of them to leave out of habit, completely unaware that Oshitari was looking at him.

"Hmm, Atobe," Oshitari said, taking a step towards him.

"Stop it," Atobe ordered. "I will not allow you to violate me again."

"We have one little drunken fling, and you think I'll go after you every chance I get? Are you that full of yourself? Or does it turn you on? The thought of me and you?"

Atobe felt his skin crawl. This was humiliating. He was only ever… intimate with Oshitari, and even then they never had sex. To him, anything even remotely sexual was a very private affair, and Oshitari talking as though sex was just a thing made Atobe feel like an object.

"I know you will go after me because you're _you_."

Oshitari smirked. "Well, I guess you're right. But I can't help it, you're too damn sexy and I do love wine."

Oshitari shrugged, and began to walk towards the door that led outside. He swayed his hips as he walked and looked back at Atobe, winking. Atobe hurried outside, staying a good ten feet behind Oshitari to whole time.

.

Hiyoshi was holding the GPS, pushing aside branches to go through the forest. Akaya was behind him, whistling a tune and cursing under his breath as branches hit him in the face. Akaya didn't even get why they were going this way. Everyone else went down a path, but Hiyoshi had to go take a non-marked path up the mountain.

"So, Yanagi-sempai says there's a ninety-nine percent chance that you'll be Hyotei's pimp-captain next year unless you piss off Atobe."

"Atobe-buchou doesn't decide the captain," Hiyoshi told him, stopping to look at the GPS. He took a right, and now they were doing down a small hill. "Sakaki-sensei is in charge of the team – the captain is simply for show. Why do you think we don't have a vice-captain?"

"I don't know," Akaya said, struggling to keep up with Hiyoshi. "Geez, Hiyoshi, would it kill you to slow down?"

Hiyoshi didn't answer him.

"You don't talk much, do you? You seem to talk around that girly red headed boy, Mifka-something?"

Hiyoshi stopped on the hill and turned around. "Mukahi-san is not girly. If anyone is girly, it's that captain of yours." Hiyoshi turned around and went right back to working his way down the hill.

"Hey, no need to be mean; I was just kidding," Akaya said. "I mean, we're both going to be captains next year, so I just think we should get along."

Hiyoshi didn't say anything.

"So, what kind of music do you like? I listen to American music – you learn a lot of curse words, and it's the only reason I'm passing English."

Akaya looked at Hiyoshi, hoping to at least some kind of facial change. Nothing. This guy was more stone-faced than Sanada.

"Whatever, you're not a music guy," Akaya said, trying not to let Hiyoshi get to him. "Hmm… What about reading? I like _Jump_ and _Monthly Tennis Pro_. You look like a book guy. Books are okay, if they have a lot of action in them. Those sappy romance stories really –"

Hiyoshi turned around, glaring at Akaya, immediately making Akaya shut up. "Do you ever shut up?" Hiyoshi hissed.

That's when Akaya decided that it was going to be a long two hours.

.

"I think that tree could be climbed easily," Fuji said as Jirou and he wondered around the front of the cabin. Unlike everyone else, they decided to explore what was in front of the cabin.

Jirou looked up the tree Fuji was standing by and nodded. Jirou went back to looking around, pretending to be looking for good hiding places, completely unaware of the frown on his face.

"I've never seen you get upset," Fuji commented, walking over to Jirou.

"I've never seen you get upset either," Jirou said, forcing a smile.

"What's wrong? You can trust me, I won't tell a soul, unless it's something illegal, then I'll be forced to tell someone."

_Even when he's trying to be serious, he's still smiling like that_, Jirou thought, rubbing his neck.

"Well, it's nothing in particular."_Atobe. _"I've just been having trouble sleeping." _Because of Atobe. _"And I'm just upset because this will probably be our last camp during junior high." _Atobe. _

Fuji just nodded and smiled. "Well, if you ever want to tell me what's really wrong, I'll be glad to listen."

Jirou smiled and said "okay," but he knew there was no chance of him ever telling Fuji what was really wrong. He couldn't even admit to himself that he had feelings for his best friend.

.

"Niou," Marui said as they walked through a small path in the forest.

"Hm?" Niou moved a few low hanging limbs aside, but still didn't see any good hiding places. They'd be better off hiding in a damn tree like a bunch of monkeys.

Marui looked at Niou for a moment, and then went back to looking for a place. "Never mind. It's not important," he mumbled, moving a few limbs out of their way so they could keep walking.

Niou followed Marui down the path, completely abandoning his search for hiding places to watch Marui.

* * *

**A/N: Fun Fact: Harry Potter and the Death Hallows – best movie yet. **


	14. Chapter 14

**14.**

"Jirou, stop pacing."

"It's seven thirty," Jirou said, refusing to stop his pace. "Why isn't Atobe back yet?"

Jirou didn't even get why he was worried. Atobe knew all of his cabins' land like the back of his hand. But he was still worried. He was worried Oshitari killed him and dumped him in the lake. He was worried Oshitari and him had a fight, and he was up in the mountain with a major concussion.

But what scared Jirou the most was that Oshitari had come back alone and immediately went to check on Mukahi. It wasn't his actions that worried him… it was the smirk he gave Jirou when he walked by to go upstairs. It was the fact that everyone besides Marui left him to eat dinner. It was the fact that no one seemed to care that Atobe hadn't come back yet, not even Kabaji.

"You should go eat," Jirou said, finally stopping.

Marui shook his head. "Niou said he'd get me some bread or something if we don't come in before dinner ends. I'm fine, really." His stomach growled. "Er… I mean, I can wait."

Jirou walked over to the sofa that circled the fireplace and sat down, sighing. "Where is he?"

Marui walked over to the blonde and sat down next to him. "You really like him, don't you?"

Jirou's face turned beat red and he shook his head furiously. "No," he said, not sure if he was lying or not (at this point, he wasn't sure what he was feeling). "It's just – well, he's my best friend. How would you feel if it was Niou out there?"

Marui rubbed the back of his head. "I'd probably be outside screaming until I lost my voice."

"Exactly," Jirou said, his voice weak. "I'm scared. He's never late. Even when he says he's going to the restroom and will be back in a minute, he's always back in exactly one minute. He's just weird like that."

"Then he'll be back," Marui reassured him.

Jirou groaned, tossing his head back. "I don't get why I'm not outside screaming my lungs out."

"Because Niou and Atobe are different; Niou would kick my ass if I didn't go out to look for him, and Atobe would kick your ass if you did – they're like polar opposites."

"Yeah, they are." Jirou pulled his head back up and tucked his knees into his chest. "How mad would he get if I ran outside looking for him?"

"He'd shove his foot up your ass."

Jirou made a whimper-like noise, rubbing his back – it was hurting again, and he really needed another massage. The stress of Atobe being missing really wasn't helping his pain, either. "Why am I so worried?"

Marui watched his friend bury his head in his knees, and felt a lump in his throat. He knew that Atobe could be an ass at times, but he never expected him to do this to Jirou.

.

Outside, by the side of the cabin, Atobe was pacing back and forth, his phone pressed up against his ear.

"I know it can't wait any longer," Atobe said, pinching the bridge of his nose, "but I don't want there to be just a forty-two percent success rate. I found a doctor in Italy who –"

Atobe kicked the side of the house. This guy was really starting to piss him off.

"I _know_ the surgery needs to be performed immediately," he hissed, "but I told you, the doctor from Italy could be here by –" Atobe was cut off. He sighed, pressing his back against the wall and sliding down until he was sitting in the grass. "Can't it wait one more day? Is that really going to kill her?"

"Yes," the man replied.

Atobe never knew that one world could make his stomach turn like that.

"Okay," Atobe said after a moment, "do the surgery. But if anything goes wrong, you'll never practice medicine in Japan again."

Atobe snapped his phone shut and held it between his hands, closing his eyes. He tossed his head back, hitting it against the side of the cabin. He took in a few deep breaths and then got himself together. He could handle this. His father had raised him to be a strong, composed man.

_Why should I listen to what my father says? He's the reason she's… _

Atobe opened his eyes and looked at the mountains in front of him, wishing Jirou was next to him. Jirou always knew how to make him laugh. Jirou always knew what to say. Jirou always knew when to shut up and just sit next to him in complete silence. Jirou understood him in a way that no one else could.

Atobe forced himself up, slipped his phone into his pocket, and then turned to walk towards the front of the cabin. He let himself in, hoping to just sneak up to his room and sleep. However, much to his displeasure (and pleasure), the first thing he saw was Jirou – the pleasure being seeing Jirou, the displeasure being the petrified expression the blonde was wearing.

"Why am I so worried?" Jirou asked with his head in his knees.

_Does he realize I'm here?_

"I don't know why," Marui said. "Either he's not your best friend, or he's something more."

"What do you mean?"

"Best friends trust each other, so if he's your best friend, you wouldn't need to worry. But if he's something more to you, then you have every right in the world to worry."

Atobe closed the door behind him, causing Jirou and Marui to look over at him.

"Atobe?" Jirou shot up off the sofa, jumped over the back, and rushed over to Atobe. He wrapped his arms around his torso, unable to reach his captain's neck. Atobe wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around Jirou, to make that sad face go away, but he couldn't, not with Marui watching, not with his façade.

"Jirou," Atobe said, blinking slowly. "Why are you hugging me?"

Jirou pulled back a bit, just enough to look up at him, but kept his arms on Atobe's sides. "You idiot – I was worried about you! Where were you?"

"Outside." Atobe grabbed Jirou's wrists and moved his hands off of him, knowing that if Jirou kept his hands there any longer he would probably never want him to let go. "I received a call just before I came inside. Oshitari said he would tell you where I was."

"Well," Jirou said, taking a few steps back, suddenly feeling very self conscious, "he didn't tell us anything."

Atobe nodded, unsure of what to say. "Why don't you go get something to eat?"

Jirou nodded back, honestly just happy that Atobe was okay (AKA: Oshitari didn't murder him). He grabbed Marui's wrist to drag him along, but the red head said he would be in a moment. Jirou nodded to him, too, and hurried into the dining hall to eat.

When the door shut, Marui turned to Atobe. "What the hell is your problem?"

Atobe raised an eyebrow. "_My_ problem?"

"You scared him half to death. If you scare him again, I'll break your neck."

"Like you could break my neck," he said, using his best poker face. He knew he had scared Jirou half to death, and he felt terrible for it, but he didn't need someone from retarded Rikkaidai shoving it down his throat.

"Just don't hurt him again," Marui said. He walked into the dining hall after that, giving Atobe a glare that could kill before closing the door behind him.

Atobe pinched the bridge of his nose and walked upstairs. He quickly entered the suite he was sharing with his teammates, hurried to his bedroom, and locked the door behind him. He never locked doors, but he just didn't want someone to come barging in.

He collapsed on his bed face first, and then rolled onto his back. He covered his eyes with his palms, his fingers clawing at his hair. He moved his hands, grabbed a pillow, sat up, and threw it as hard as he could against the wall. He touched his sides, right where Jirou's hands had been. He swallowed hard and lied back down, trying to will Jirou's face out of his mind.

No matter how hard he tried to deny it, Jirou drove him insane.

* * *

**A/N: I am switching to an every-other week updating schedule. To be honest, I am extremely behind on this story, and, well, I'm busy. I'm sorry, but I'm the author, so get over it.  
**

**Side Note: I. Love. Baccano! Vino is pure evil, Issac and Mira are fantasticly funny, and the English dubs _rock_. I highly recommend this anime, if you love the mafia, guns, psychotic killers, and a few laughs.  
**


	15. Chapter 15

**15.**

Atobe never came back down for dinner.

Jirou didn't even bother to go check on him. He figured his captain was either sleeping or working, and he honestly didn't have the energy to bother with Atobe. In fact, he didn't even have the energy to do anything. After dinner, he made his way up to his bedroom, changed into his pajamas, and collapsed onto his bed.

He grabbed his phone off of his nightstand, and absentmindedly began to text Atobe.

Jirou had a bad habit of texting people right before he went to sleep. He didn't understand why he did it, he simply did. His mother, a psychologist, says it is because when he was younger, she would read him stories, and he still needs to hear from other people. He just nods when she tells him that, mostly because he doesn't even remember being read stories.

_y were u outside?_

He rolled onto his side, setting his phone next to him as he crawled under the covers. He didn't expect Atobe to say anything back, so he closed his eyes. But then his phone buzzed.

_**I was on the phone.**_

_w/ who?_

_**Business. I apologize for worrying you; Oshitari was to tell you of my whereabouts.**_

"I know that," Jirou mumbled. It was always business, and it was always Oshitari. Jirou went to type something back, but couldn't think of anything, so he closed his phone and closed his eyes. Once again, his phone buzzed.

_**Are you in your room?**_

_yeah… y?_

_**Mukahi, Shishido and Oshitari are playing games out in the lounge. I was just wondering if you were with them or not.**_

_im not_

Jirou really wasn't sure what Atobe was getting at. Atobe didn't really care about things like video games, let alone where he was. Sure, a lot of awkward things had happened since camp started, but it's not like Atobe to let things like that get under his skin.

_**We're going into town tomorrow.**_

_r u going?_

_**Yes.**_

_cool_

Jirou stared at his phone for a minute or two, waiting for Atobe to reply. When no reply came in five minutes, Jirou shut his phone and snuggled up into his bed. Just when he closed his eyes, his phone buzzed again.

"You're freakin' kidding me," Jirou groaned, his arm flailing around the bed for his phone.

_**Is everything alright between us?**_

Jirou wanted to say no, that everything was messed up. That ever since he saw him naked that things have been a disaster. That that massage drove him insane. That when he was missing, even if it was for only thirty minutes, he felt like he was going to die.

_y wldnt it b?_

Atobe, who was sitting on his bed, his laptop long forgotten, blinked at the screen. Did everything that had happened not affect him? The massage? Sharing a bed? Seeing him naked? Were they really just friends?

_**No, everything is fine. Good night.**_

_good night :)_

.

"Eiji," Oishi said as they left the dining hall. The hyperactive red head slipped his hands into his pockets, slowing down to walk next to Oishi.

"Whatcha need, Oishi?" Eiji asked with a smile.

Oishi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I was wondering if you could help me study for my entrance exams…"

"Oh?" Eiji sounded surprised, but held his smile. "You picked a school?"

Oishi nodded. "Yeah, I did. It has a nice campus, and a tennis team. But their science program is really good, and half of the students go into something medical related."

"I still can't get over you wanting to be a doctor. You'd look all funky in a white coat."

Eiji had come to terms with Oishi leaving long ago, but it still hurt. The laughter could dull the pain of losing his best friend, but part of him knew it was for the better – it was Oishi's life, his dream, and Eiji didn't think he had the right to stop him from being happy.

"I'll help," he said, pulling a hand out of his pocket to pat Oishi on the back.

Oishi smiled. "Thanks."

"No prob."

.

Tezuka was sitting on the sofa of his suite, reading a book, when Fuji sat next to him. The smaller boy just sat there, leaning against Tezuka and reading the page, occasionally laughing softly. He reached over Tezuka to turn the page, but Tezuka grabbed his wrist.

Fuji frowned, pulling his arms back. Fuji put his arms above his head, arching his back and yawning as he stretched. He licked his lips, leaning back against the sofa, his blue eyes locked on Tezuka. "Is swallowing after a blowjob considered cannibalism?"

Tezuka blinked slowly, turning his head to look at Fuji. He turned down the corner of the page he was on, closing the book. "Why?"

Fuji shrugged. "I was just in the lounge, and Oshitari and Mukahi were talking about blowjobs, and when I asked them, they just sort of looked at me funny. Is it?"

"I don't think so, since it's not flesh."

"Huh." Fuji stood up. "Thank you."

Tezuka watched Fuji go into his bedroom, wondering if Fuji asked weird questions on purpose, just to get a reaction out of him.

.

"Hey, Niou," Marui said, running down a hall to catch up to his teammate. Niou stopped right in front of his suite door, and waited for Marui to get where he was. "What's up with you lately?" Marui asked.

"What do you mean?"

Marui shrugged casually. "You've just been acting, I dunno, weird. Like, earlier, we were at the stairs, and you were going to ask me something, but then you stopped when Akaya showed up. What were you going to ask?"

"What were you going to ask me in the forest?"

Marui rubbed the back of his head. "I was going to ask what you wanted to ask me earlier, but then I decided not to. It just didn't seem important."

"If it didn't seem important, then why are you asking me now?"

"It's not important, I just need to know."

"Why do you need to know if it's not important?" Niou asked, and then added, "I'm going to bed," before Marui could say anything else. Niou opened the door to his suite, and closed it behind him.

"Niou…" Marui ran a hand through his hair, and then he punched the wall.

* * *

**A/N: No comments.  
**


	16. Chapter 16

**16.**

That night, more than one person had trouble sleeping.

Marui spent half the night wondering what was wrong with Niou, and the other half thinking about Akaya.

Niou was up, unable to shake the image of Marui and Akaya together from his mind.

Akaya was up, unable to figure out what Marui meant in that text message.

Needless to say, breakfast wasn't a very pleasant experience. They sat at their regulars table, Jirou occasionally walking over to where Marui, Akaya and Niou were sitting to get more jam – "Shishido hogs it all," he would say. Normally, the three Rikkaidai boys would be able to deal with it, but they were half-asleep, and one second away from stabbing each other.

Momo, noticing his table was out of jam, looked around, and saw that Jirou had just put a jar back at the three boy's tables. As casually as possibly, Momo walked over and –

"What do you want?" Niou asked bitterly.

Momo rubbed the back of his head. "I was wondering if –"

"If you could grow a pair?" Niou suggested. He was never a morning person, and having not slept really wasn't helping his mood. When Jirou came over, he had to be nice because Marui was friends with him, but this Momo guy just pissed him off – his optimistic, care-free attitude just irked him.

"Hey," Momo said, "calm down. I was just going to ask for the jam."

"Don't have any," Akaya said, grabbing the jar of strawberry jam. He unscrewed the lid and stuck his knife into the almost completely full jar, and then began rubbing more than enough onto his biscuit.

"You have it right there," Momo said.

Akaya put the jar down, biting into his biscuit. "No, I don't."

"Do you think you're funny?" Momo asked, crossing his arms.

"I think I'm adorable."Akaya looked up at him, and his face was that of an angel, but his eyes belonged to the devil. "Biscuit?" he offered with a sickly sweet smile.

That's when Momo gave up, and went back to his table, realizing a jam-less biscuit was better than smart-ass remarks.

"What was that about?" Ryoma asked when Momo sat back down at their table.

"Assholes, that's what," Momo replied under his breath.

Shortly after that, Atobe, Tezuka and Yukimura gathered around the middle of the dining hall so everyone could see them. Yukimura coughed again – once again scaring his team half to death.

"In half an hour we will be going into town," Atobe said. "We will be staying in town until five, so bring anything you will need, including money and cell phones. There are more than enough activities to keep you occupied during our stay. Any questions?"

"Are we meeting for lunch?" Yagyuu asked. "Or do we eat whether we want?"

Atobe nodded, his way of saying that was a good question. "I have taken it upon myself to create a list of shops, restaurants, and other businesses that can be found within the town, as well as a map. You will be given one on the bus."

Yagyuu nodded, his way of saying that was more than enough. (AKA: shut the hell up.)

"If you are not on the bus in half an hour, or chose to stay behind, the chefs are still preparing lunch," Atobe added. "The bus is outside and you may board whenever you please."

Shortly after Atobe finished his speech, people began to go upstairs to gather there things. Atobe went upstairs after talking to the chefs about the meals for the rest of the day. In the living area of his suite, Hiyoshi was sitting on the sofa, his phone in his hand.

"Is something wrong?" Atobe wasn't even sure why he was asking. Jirou might have given him an answer, but Hiyoshi rarely talked about his personal problems anymore – at least not to him.

Hiyoshi looked up, closing his phone. "No, I'm fine," he said. "I'm going to get my wallet; I'll see you on the bus."

_What an odd boy_, Atobe thought before heading into his own room.

.

"Jaaaaackaaaaal," Marui yelled from the living area of their suite, "have you seen my ipod?"

Jackal was in his bedroom, while Marui was tearing the room apart; sofa cushions were on the floor, chairs were moved, and the curtains were askew. A minute later, Jackal came out of his room, a small book bag on his back, and Marui's ipod in his hand.

"You're the best," Marui gushed, taking his ipod. He put his black headphones in, immediately turning it to his favorite playlist.

"You need to be more careful with things," Jackal said as they walked out of their suite.

"I'm very careful."Marui slipped his ipod in his pocket. Then he felt his pockets were rather empty, and patted them down. "Crap, I forgot my wallet."

"It's in my book bag."

"What about my sunglasses?"

"Book bag."

"Cell phone?"

Jackal reached into his pocket and handed Marui his cell phone. Marui took it, slipping it into his pocket. Jackal sighed again, saying, "I don't get how you remember your own name."

.

Everyone boarded the bus in their usual groups – Yanagai, Sanada and Yukimura; Tezuka and Fuji; Eiji and Oishi – until the last person, Atobe, had boarded the bus. The heir did a quick mental head count.

"Mukahi, is Hiyoshi in the back seat?" he asked.

Mukahi turned his head around, saw Hiyoshi tucked up into a little ball with his headphones in, and turned back around. "Yeah," he said just loud enough for Atobe to hear.

Atobe nodded, and then held his hand out to Kabaji who handed him a stack of papers. He split the stack in two, and handed half to a drowsy Jirou, and the other half to Yagyuu who was sitting behind him.

"Everyone take a map, the list of businesses is on the opposite side."

Atobe put a hand on the driver's shoulder, said something, and then sat down next to Kabaji, who was sitting by the window for a change. Jirou yawned, wishing he could take a nap, and watched as Atobe opened up his laptop to work.

"Ne, Atobe," Jirou said, taking a few long, hard blinks to wake himself up, "just how long is the drive down to town?"

"Half an hour, maybe more," Atobe said, already typing. "If you need to use the restroom, there is one in the back; however, since this is not one of my private buses, I would not suggest using it."

Jirou wanted to laugh at how serious Atobe was about taking a dump, which isn't why he asked, but couldn't find the strength to even chuckle. He just nuzzled up against the window and closed his eyes. "Just wake me up when we get there."

"Alright."

.

Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi all had their own, separate seats, but were still close to each other. Sanada was sitting across from Yukimura, whom Yanagi was sitting behind. Early in their tennis careers, they realized it was easier for them to have their own seats – Yanagi always brought a book bag full of notebooks and emergency supplies, Yukimura tended to curl up and fall asleep on long drives, and Sanada, well, he had a tendency to sit with his legs in a very wide 'V' that took up three quarters of the seat.

"Yukimura," Sanada said, turning awkwardly in his seat.

Yukimura stopped starring out the window to turn to face Sanada. "What is it, Genchirou?"

"Are you angry with me?"

_Genchirou's rather blunt today,_ Yanagi commented mentally, tuning into his friends' conversation. Sanada was a blunt person, who would tell a girl that those jeans do indeed make her look fat while being completely unaware to the consequences of his actions.

Yukimura furrowed his brow. He wanted to lie, to say that he was perfectly fine, but the other part of him wanted to tell him the truth, to tell Sanada that he was being an idiot.

"Why?" Yukimura asked curiously.

"No reason in particular," Sanada said. "Sorry for disturbing you."

Yukimura gave a half-grunt in response, and turned to look out the window.

.

Fuji and Tezuka sat next to each other, while Eiji and Oishi were in the seat behind them. At first, Fuji was content with just listening to Eiji's and Oishi's conversation, but then Eiji mentioned something about soda, and Fuji's mind began to think Fuji-like things.

"Coca-Cola was originally green," Fuji said arbitrarily.

Tezuka turned and looked at the shorter boy. "That isn't a question."

"Coca-Cola was originally green?" Fuji said, changing his tone as he spoke.

"Yes, it was."

Fuji sighed. "You're so weird."

* * *

**A/N: I am beginning to think that the only reason I have Fuji ask odd questions is because I need fillers, and because I have a lot of odd questions and it gives me an excuse to abuse Google.**

_**Also, happy holidays!**_


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 5: Atobe sends flowers.**

**Chapter 14: Atobe orders a doctor to perform a surgery.**

**

* * *

**

**17.**

"We're here."

Seconds later, the bus chugged to a stop, and Atobe stood up. He grabbed his laptop case, and then exited the bus. He stood by the door, waiting until ever last person got off the bus. Hiyoshi was the last one off, like always, and Atobe nodded to the bus driver. As the bus drove off, Atobe looked at the group of boys that was gathered around the fountain.

"We are in the center of the town," Atobe informed them. "Meet back here at five."

A few of the boys nodded, a few grumbled back smart ass remarks, while others just ignored Atobe and began to walk around the town square. The town was small, and was a mix between old Japan and modern Japan. There were shops and store windows all around them, as well as several side streets that led to more stores and apartments.

"Atobe," Jirou said, walking up to his captain, "do you want to hang out?"

"I have business I need to do," Atobe said, almost frowning. "But I will meet up with you at lunch, if that is okay with you."

Jirou nodded, slightly upset. He thought the whole reason Atobe told him about their trip to town ahead of time was because he wanted to hang out. Apparently he was wrong. Atobe walked off, handing his laptop case to Kabaji who quickly secured the strap around his arm.

"Jirou!" Marui called, waving at him.

Jirou smiled, forgot about Atobe for a moment, and jogged over to the red haired boy.

.

Niou and Yagyuu were walking down the street. Niou, refusing to use the map, just looked around at the stores until he stopped in front of a small, red store. He looked at the sign: _Dragon Fireworks_. Niou smiled, walking inside. Yagyuu, having not been paying attention to his partner, walked right by the store, but quickly turned around to go into the store to find his partner.

It was a small shop, but was full of color and life. Little kids grabbed sparklers, teenage girls looked at roman candles, and teenage boys looked at the mortars.

"No," Yagyuu said as he watched Niou walk around the store.

Niou stopped walking, his hand fiddling with a box of firecrackers. "No?"

"No," Yagyuu said again, his voice firm.

Niou set down the box, and picked up a bigger one. "What are you no-ing about?"

"Fireworks. You are not buying them," Yagyuu told him matter-of-factly.

Niou set that box down, picking up an even larger box of firecrackers. "You're obviously using reverse psychology. I'm going to buy some."

"Why do I even bother?" Yagyuu wondered out loud as he watched Niou pick up boxes of roman candles, firecrackers, small fountains, and other things that Yagyuu didn't even recognize.

"Because you have a big stick up your ass?"

Yagyuu was pretty sure that that wasn't the reason.

.

"Oishi, look at these," Eiji said, stopping in front of a small store. There was a sunglasses rack outside, and Eiji immediately grabbed the biggest, most obnoxious pair they had. He put on the bright pink money symbol glasses and laughed at his reflection in the store's glass window.

"Here, put these on," Eiji said, grabbing a pair of blue slit glasses.

"Eiji –" Oishi stopped protesting when Eiji slipped the glasses on him. "I look ridiculous!"

"That's the point!"

Eiji pulled his cell phone out, put an arm around Oishi's shoulder, and flashed a cheesy grin as he took a picture.

.

Ohtori and Shishido were walking down a small street, completely confused by the maps Atobe had given them. They weren't good with directions, and weren't even sure where they were. They stopped to figure out where they were, and Ohtori spotted a toy store.

"Look, Shishido-san, they have Star Wars stuff!" Ohtori said, pointing to the small store window.

A little girl who had been walking by stopped and looked up at Shishido. "You're that old and you like Star Wars?"

"No, that'd be lame," Shishido huffed before he grabbed Ohtori's wrist and began to drag him in a random direction.

"But, Shishido-san, I thought you liked Star Wars."

The little girl laughed, and Shishido turned a little red. "Shut up and keep walking."

.

Marui was acting like a kid in a candy shop, which is exactly what he was. Jirou and Marui had gone into a few clothes stores, gotten a few T-shirts (Jirou got a Cookie Monster shirt and got Marui an Elmo shirt), and the two eventually found a small candy shop on the corner of a street.

"Holy crap," Marui said, shifting the boxes and bags in his hands before grabbing a rainbow swirl lollipop the size of his head. "I am _so _buying this."

After that, the two went up to the cashier. Marui set down two boxes of fudge, a bag of gummy bears, his giant lollipop, and a small bag of jaw breakers. As the cashier rang up his total, Marui patted down his pants, realizing Jackal still had his wallet. Jirou had insisted in paying for all the clothes, and Marui hadn't realized that he didn't have it.

Marui looked at Jirou with a guilty expression. "Jirou?"

Jirou set down his sweets and pulled out his wallet. He handed the cashier a credit card. He looked at Marui and said, "You owe me a lunch." The cashier handed Jirou back his credit card and a receipt. Jirou looked at the amount. "Make that sixteen lunches."

Marui laughed nervously.

.

Hiyoshi was sitting outside of a small coffee shop at a four person table with a yellow stripped umbrella blocking out the midday sun. He had a cup of coffee on the table, his phone next to it, and a book in his hands. His phone vibrated loudly against the glass of the table, and Hiyoshi quickly grabbed his phone – Mukahi had sent him a text message.

_Hiyo-chan, where r u?_

_**The coffee shop in the town square. **_

Hiyoshi set his phone down, took a sip of his coffee, and then went back to his book. Ten or so minutes later, Mukahi sat down next to Hiyoshi, nearly scaring the second year to death. Mukahi set five or so large bags on the table, and began going through them.

"Where is it?" Mukahi mumbled, switching bags. "Ah-ha!" He pulled out a smaller bag from the larger bag, and handed it to Hiyoshi. "Here."

Hiyoshi set his book down, and took the bag. He dipped his hand in, and pulled out two cell phone straps. One was a mushroom from the Mario games, and the other was a fire flower, also from the Mario games. Mukahi took the fire flower, and pulled out his phone.

"I forgot, this one's mine," Mukahi said, hooking it onto his phone. The little flower dangled right next to the tennis ball charm. Hiyoshi looked at the mushroom. "It's funny," Mukahi said, grabbing Hiyoshi's phone and the strap, "because you're a Shroom."

"This makes me sincerely hate you," Hiyoshi said as Mukahi handed him his phone back. Now he had a dangling Mario mushroom with no idea how to take it off.

"I'm sorry about that," Mukahi said, obviously not meaning it. He eyed Hiyoshi's cup of coffee, and then picked it up. He took off the lid, taking a quick sip. He wrinkled his nose, and set the cup down. "Bleh."

"I guess coffee isn't your cup of tea," Hiyoshi said with a small chuckle, picking his book back up.

"That wasn't funny," Mukahi mumbled.

"I thought it was hilarious."

Mukahi sat there silently, pulling out his phone to reply to a text occasionally. He was content with just sitting there, watching people walk by, and asking Hiyoshi what his book was about from time to time. After about ten minutes, Mukahi realized Hiyoshi hadn't touched his coffee since he sat down.

"Your half-calf double-vanilla latte's getting cold over here, Miss," Mukahi teased.

Hiyoshi looked up from his book. "Bite me."

.

Fuji and Tezuka were inside a small, old-fashioned shop watching an old man blow a glass koi. It had been Tezuka's idea to come into the shop, and Fuji was originally against it, but Fuji had to admit that watching the old man work the glass was rather fascinating.

When Fuji's phone began to rang, he walked over to the other side of the store, which was only twenty or so feet away. He pulled his phone out of his pocket, not bothering to check the ID, since only one person had the St. Rudolph cheer as their ring tone.

"Yuuta!" Fuji exclaimed.

"Hey, Aniki," Yuuta said. "I came home to visit, but Mom said you were at a camp. Where are you?"

Fuji hummed. "I'm not sure. We're in one of Atobe's cabins. Actually, we're in a town right now. Oh, what's your favorite animal?"

"I like wolves. Why?"

Fuji smiled. "No reason. I'll talk to you later!"

"Wait, Aniki –"

Fuji hung up before Yuuta could finish, making a mental note to call him back alter tonight. Humming softly to himself, Fuji walked around the store and found a hand-blown glass wolf. He bought it.

.

Momo and Ryoma, being the fools they are, ignored the maps, and went straight to the sports shop that was in the town square. The two were browsing the grip tape when a young girl came up.

"Can I help you?" she asked, though she was looking at Ryoma more than Momo.

"No," Ryoma said flatly.

"Are you sure?" the girl asked. "We have a new shipment of tape in the back, if you're looking for a specific brand."

Ryoma turned and looked at her. She was cute, probably half-American because her eyes were blue, but her hair was black. She was wearing the shop's polo, which did nothing but flatter her body, and a short skirt with zebra spandex. She was _really _cute.

"No," Ryoma said, "we're good."

The girl nodded, walking away with a slight frown. When she got out of hearing distance, Momo slapped Ryoma on the back of the head.

"Ow!" Ryoma hissed, grabbing his head. "What was that for?"

"She was flirting with you. And she knew sports stuff!"

"Look at how she walks."

Momo turned his head and watched her walk. "She has a nice ass."

"And jiggling thunder thighs. Just because you know sports stuff doesn't mean you _do_ sports stuff."

Momo just laughed.

.

Atobe was standing in front of a small shop when his phone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, he pressed it to his ear and leaned up against the wall of the shop.

"Atobe Keigo."

There was a pause, but Atobe could hear a soft beep in the background and the faint sound of French music, and he immediately knew who it was.

"They're allowing you to call after surgery?" Atobe asked, glancing around to make sure none of the boys were around him.

"The Atobe name does give me a bit of leeway here, Keigo," a wry woman said. "My nurse is standing right next to me, anyways."

"I see."

There was another pause before the woman said, "Thank you for the flowers. I got them yesterday, and I meant to call, but apparently getting surgery is more important than calling my son."

Atobe smiled. "Well, it's good to hear that you're alright."

"Apparently I have one of the best doctors in the country," she said. "Is that a coincidence, or are you pulling strings again?"

"I believe that you already know the answer to that."

"A mother couldn't ask for more."

"Keigo?"

Atobe looked up. Furrowing his brow and pushing himself off the wall, Atobe said, "Mother, I'll call you back. I have a meeting."

"I love you," his mother said.

Atobe hung up, walking towards the person who had said his name with an expression that could give Sanada a run for his money.

.

Jirou and Marui were sitting on the fountain edge. Jirou looked up, and spotted Atobe in front of a small shop – well, he saw his back, but he knew it was Atobe. Jirou stood up, completely forgetting that Marui was telling a joke, grabbed his bags, and rushed over to Atobe.

"Atobe," Jirou said, walking up to him. When he could see more than his back, he also noticed that he was talking to a girl. She was a short brunette, with nothing really unique about her.

"Sorry," Jirou said, suddenly regretting rushing over to Atobe.

The girl smiled at Jirou, then turned back to Atobe. "Tell Munehiro that I said hi. I'll talk to you later, Keigo," she said, waving and walking away.

Atobe pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. _That girl…_

"Sorry," Jirou said again.

Atobe lowered his hand, and ruffled Jirou's hair. "It's alright. Do you want to go get lunch?"

Jirou nodded and followed Atobe as he began to walk. "So, who was that?" Jirou asked curiously, shifting his bags around.

"Just someone I know," Atobe said vaguely. "Italian or sushi?"

Jirou hummed, thinking for a moment. Then he looked up at Atobe with a huge toothy smile that forced his eyes into small slits. "Sushi."

Atobe smiled and ruffled Jirou's curly hair for a second time. "Okay."

* * *

**A/N: The mystery-surgery-person has been revealed! …and I just wanted to have a little fun with the characters and dialogue.**

**Okay, here's the deal with the updating: I know I suck, but I'm trying my best. Please believe me that there will be an update, unless I say otherwise. Stick with me, I think this story is work it :) **


	18. Chapter 18

**18.**

They were exhausted.

Atobe had been right when he said that they wouldn't be bored in town; the all-day trip into town wore the boys out more than the best tennis game in the world. Once they got back to the cabin, most of the boys went up to their rooms, and only half of them came back down for dinner. And the few that did come down for dinner didn't even have the energy to fight.

Shishido and Niou were walking through the halls, both heading towards their suites after dinner.

"Rich Boy," Niou said with a yawn.

Shishido looked at Niou – he was holding several bags (most of which were fireworks and clothes), but he was also holding a banana.

"Stealing food? Are you_ that_ poor?" Shishido asked.

"Nah. I just don't like that fancy dog shit you people call food. Seriously, who eats duck liver?" Niou asked.

Shishido rolled his eyes. Niou chucked his banana at Shishido's head.

.

Tezuka was walking up the stairs holding his bags and Fuji's, the smaller third year on his back. Fuji had his arms wrapped around Tezuka's neck, his legs tightly wrapped around his hips.

"Ne, Tezuka, if a duck quacks, and no one's around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

Tezuka furrowed his brow. "Do you mean a tree?"

Fuji shook his head, his hair tickling Tezuka's neck. "No, I mean ducks."

"Why ducks?"

"Ducks are awesome."

Tezuka sighed. "Are you tired?" Fuji nodded into Tezuka's back. "I figured as much. You hate ducks."

"I do?" Fuji yawned. "Oh, yeah, a duck bit Yuuta at the petting zoo when we were younger. Tee-hee. That was funny, actually."

"You told me you kicked the duck."

"I did. It made a funny noise."

Tezuka made a mental note never to mention ducks around Fuji.

.

"Marui-sempai!" Akaya rushed down the hall towards his red haired sempai, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his bags tighter. Marui stopped and turned around, readjusting the bags in his hands.

"Akaya." Marui's face light up. "Whatcha want?"

Akaya was huffing, really regretting cheating on his laps. He set down his bags, held up his one-minute finger, and then reached into his pocket. He fished out his cell phone, scrolling through his texts. He turned the screen towards Marui.

_u r sooo stpid  
but thts what I lke abt u  
:)_

Marui's face turned a little red as he read the message he had sent Akaya a few days ago. He could remember sitting on his bed, unable to phrase the text. He had re-written it at least ten times before finally getting the courage to send it.

"Yeah…" Marui trailed off, biting his lip. "That's my message."

Akaya put his phone back into his pocket, rocking back and forth on his feet. "What does that mean?"

Marui blinked a few times. His voice was caught in the back of his throat. He wanted to say "I like you" or something similar, but he couldn't seem to get the words to form. He could hear the words in his head, but, in his head, he was saying them to someone else.

Marui shrugged. "I was half asleep when I wrote that."

"Oh."

"Sorry if I pissed you off or somethin'. I don't think you're stupid. Well, you are, but you know what I mean." Marui paused. "Good night." Marui turned around, waving over his shoulder.

Akaya nodded, frowning. "Good night."

.

"Hiyo-chan," Mukahi said, resting his head on Hiyoshi's shoulder, "you're a good pillow."

"Wouldn't Oshitari-sempai be mad if he saw you leaning on me like this?" Hiyoshi asked, moving around in the beanbag. Mukahi had insisted on sharing a beanbag with him while they watched TV, and Hiyoshi honestly didn't have the energy to tell Mukahi 'no.'

"Yuushi wouldn't care, and even if he would, he's sleeping in our room," Mukahi said, closing his eyes.

"Don't fall asleep!" Hiyoshi said, moving his shoulder. Mukahi grabbed his arm to keep him there. "_Mukahi-san!_ Jirou-sempai, please help."

Jirou just laughed. "I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Jirou stood up, hurrying down the halls. He was tired. With everything that's been going on since they got to camp, he hasn't been on his normal sleeping schedule. Not that his sleeping schedule is normal, but his "normal schedule" almost always had him sleeping at night. He hadn't had a good night's sleep in days, and he felt like he would go insane if didn't sleep soon.

.

"Atobe-san, do you have your laptop?" Kabaji asked.

Atobe looked over at Kabaji. "I thought you had it."

Kabaji sighed and stood up. "I'll call the bus driver and tell him to come back; he can't be that far away."

Atobe nodded and said, "Thank you," before Kabaji was out of their suite. Once the door closed, Atobe rolled his shoulders and lied down on the large sofa. _It'll take at least thirty minutes for the bus driver to come back,_ Atobe figured, closing his eyes for a quick nap.

Moments later, Jirou opened up the door to the suite and saw Atobe lying on the sofa. Jirou smiled to himself and absentmindedly walked over to where his captain was. His eyes were closed, so Jirou figured it was safe to assume he was asleep. He squatted in front of Atobe's face, silently studying his face.

Atobe's eyes moved behind his eyelids, his mouth was open slightly, and his stressed seemed non-existent. Jirou reached over, brushing a strand of hair away from his closed eyes. Jirou let his fingers linger on Atobe's temple, gently rubbing circles with his middle finger.

"You're cute when you're asleep."

Jirou turned red. He knew Atobe couldn't hear him, but it was still embarrassing. He just called another boy cute. But he was cute. Jirou knew girls called Atobe hot and sexy, but Jirou found him cute for some odd reason. There was just _something_ about Atobe that was _cute_. Maybe it was the way he made Jirou feel all bubbly, or the way he made Jirou smile, or the way he made Jirou feel like he was floating on clouds. Atobe made Jirou feel so weightless, so free.

Jirou licked his lips and let his eyes flutter shut. He gently leaned in, and quickly brushed his lips up against Atobe's. It didn't feel any different from kissing a girl; Atobe's lips were soft like a girl's, maybe a little bigger.

Jirou pulled back a second later, his face completely red. His eyes went wide with fear (_What if he wakes up_, Jirou worried), and hurried off into his bedroom. Jirou pressed his back against his door, sliding to the floor. His hand was over his mouth, his whole face was hot from embarrassment, and his eyes were wide with fear.

_Atobe. I just kissed Atobe._

He touched his lips lightly.

_I want to kiss him again._

Jirou's face became a new shade of red.

.

When the door to Jirou's bedroom closed, Atobe opened his eyes. He sat up straight, a hand immediately going to cover his mouth. His cheeks turned a little red, and Atobe felt like he was going to die. It wasn't his first kiss – it wasn't even near his first kiss – but it was a kiss with Jirou.

The Jirou who stayed late to help him with paperwork even though he had no idea what he was doing.

The Jirou who called him a three in the morning their second year to ask for a yellow crayon.

The Jirou who talked to him for reasons other than his father's money.

The Jirou who made him laugh until he cried.

The Jirou who made him smile.

And that Jirou had just kissed him.

* * *

**A/N: Still updating bi-weekly, but thought I would be nice and post this chapter a week early. **

**Also, in case some of y'all didn't know, I have a new story. It's really different from my usual writing, and the first chapter is like "WTF? Lahdolphin wrote this?" but it gets better. It's called "Organized Chaos." Check it out?  
**


	19. Chapter 19

**Note: I lied. I updated a week early. Again.  
**

* * *

**19.**

Atobe couldn't get Jirou out of his mind.

It was strange, so very strange, he thought when he got up. Jirou's his best friend, his_ straight_ best friend, and he had kissed him. It flabbergasted Atobe to no end. It just didn't add up.

Atobe sat down at a table with Tezuka and Yukimura for breakfast. He grabbed a few strawberry scones, and couldn't help but let his eyes wonder over to Jirou's table. The blonde was laughing at something Mukahi had said as he grabbed another blueberry scone. He looked up and spotted Atobe staring, and immediately looked away.

"Atobe, are you okay?" Yukimura asked, observing smile that spread across Hyotei's captain's face.

Atobe focused on his breakfast, his face leaving no trace of a smile. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Just asking," Yukimura said, biting into his scone.

"Don't ask again."

A few moments later, Atobe stood up, and picked up his knife and glass. He tapped the knife gently against the side of the glass, eventually getting everyone's attention. He set down his knife and glass, and put on his poker face.

"We are going down to the lake again today," he told them, his eyes landing on Jirou. The blonde boy blushed like mad, and Atobe had to keep himself from smiling. "The chef's are preparing several picnic baskets as I speak. We will be spending the majority of the day there, but you may return to the cabin whenever you please. Be in the lounge by eleven. Any questions?"

When no one asked anything, so Atobe grabbed two scones and hurried out of the dining room.

Jirou watched as Atobe left, grabbed a blueberry scone, excused himself and left the room as well. Quickly making his way upstairs, Jirou wondered what the hell he was doing. Following Atobe, obviously, but why?

"Atobe," Jirou said, walking into their suite as he finished the last bite of his scone. He spotted Atobe's open bedroom door, and walked over, looking inside. Atobe was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Atobe," Jirou said again, walking in. He sat down on the bed around Atobe's knees.

"What is it, Jirou?" Atobe asked. He had no intentions of sitting up and having a proper conversation with Jirou because he knew he would be face-to-face with the blonde if he did that, and he didn't know what he would do if that were to happen. He never felt self-conscious around the blonde before, but now every movement, every breath, made every possible scenario play in his head.

"You left in a hurry, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I didn't sleep very well last night."

Jirou blushed a little and stood up. "I'm going to go back, if you're okay. I mean, I would stay if you weren't but–"

"I know what you meant," Atobe said, finally sitting up to show Jirou his soft smile. Jirou blushed even more, and hurried for the door. "Jirou."

Jirou grabbed the door frame. "Yeah?"

"You're my best friend," Atobe said. "You do know that, correct?"

"Yeah, I know."

Atobe hesitated a moment before adding, "You can tell me anything."

Jirou smiled and nodded. "I'm gonna go. Text me if you want to tell me things I already know."

And then he hurried off into his room to pack.

_Does he know?_ Jirou wondered.

.

Yanagi knocked on Sanada's suite door, heard something of a grunt, and opened up the door. Sanada was sprawled out on the sofa, a towel covering his eyes, his hat on the table. "Genchirou," he said with a sigh, closing the door behind him before he walked over to the sofa.

Sanada moved the damp towel, sitting up so Yanagi could join him on the sofa. "What time is it?"

"You weren't at breakfast," Yanagi commented absentmindedly, sitting down. "We're going down to the lake, but you can come up whenever you please, which, considering the circumstances, will be within twenty minutes for you."

Sanada nodded, setting the towel down and grabbing his hat. "I see. When are we leaving?"

"We are departing at eleven."

Sanada nodded. "And what time is it?" he asked again.

"I haven't the slightest idea," Yanagi said before standing up and leaving.

When the door shut, Sanada stared at his hat. Circumstances? What the hell did that mean?

.

Niou sat outside Marui's suite, waiting for him to come out. He felt like he was in a terrible cliché. A guy falling for his nerdy best friend, waiting for them to come out of their room so he could confess his love. It was stupid, but it was what was happening, and that only made it worse. He felt like his pride as a man had gone down the drain.

The door opened, and Niou sprung to his feet. Jackal gave him an odd look. "Peppy this morning, uh?"

Niou narrowed his eyes. "When's Marui coming out?"

Jackal shrugged. "Don't know. But if he asks where his ipod is, tell him I have it." Jackal turned and walked down the hall, waving over his shoulder.

Niou pressed his back against the wall, sliding back down. He felt pathetic. So hopelessly pathetic.

The door opened again, and Niou sprung up again. Marui closed the door, tossing his striped towel around his neck. He nodded at Niou. "What's up?"

Niou rubbed the back of his head as they began to walk down the hall. "I, uh, am sorta, uh–"

"Marui-sempai!"

Niou froze mid-step as Akaya rushed towards them.

"Akaya." Marui smiled as Akaya pulled him in to a hug. Marui turned to Niou, his smile huge. "What were you going to say?"

Niou smiled that smile – the fake, practiced, sweet smile he used whenever Marui and Akaya were together. "Jackal has your ipod."

And then Niou walked away.

.

"Sempai," Ryoma called from his bedroom, "do you have any sunscreen? My idiot father forgot to pack it –"

Momo chucked a tube of sunscreen at Ryoma. "Keep it. Oh, and don't insult your parents."

"You've met my father," Ryoma said, shoving the sunscreen into his bag. "He's a pervert."

"I'm a pervert," Momo pointed out, leaning against the doorframe. "Does that make me an idiot?"

"No. Being a pervert and being an idiot are different things," Ryoma said, zipping his bag up. He tossed his bag over his shoulder, walking over to the door. "Please move sempai."

Momo crossed his arms. "Make me."

Ryoma extended his arm and tickled Momo's side. The taller boy began to laugh, backing away from Ryoma's hand. Ryoma walked out of the room, whistling a tune. By the time Momo got himself composed again, Ryoma was already out of the suite.

"Oi! Come back, I demand a redo!"

.

In the lounge, at eleven, the boys were crowded around Atobe.

"Is everyone here?" Atobe scanned the crowd, avoiding Jirou's eyes – he was beginning to wonder if he could ever look that boy in the eyes again. After a quick mental head count, he turned on the soles of his shoes. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N: Did you know that if everyone alerted to this story reviewed I would be getting over forty reviews per a chapter? Hmm… Drop me a review, even if it's just an order for me to update, okay?  
**

**PS: I'm not an egotistical ass (okay, maybe a bit), I'm just asking for feedback.**


	20. Chapter 20

**20.**

"Cannonball!"

Momo ran down the lake, tucking his knees into his chest and hit the water hard. He resurfaced with a grin, and was hit with the splashes of the boys who followed in after him. While most of the boys jumped straight into the water, a few stayed on the sandy lakeside.

Hiyoshi was one of the few who stayed on land. He spread out his beach towel, sat down, and opened up his book. The moment his eyes found where he had left off, someone put their towel next to his. Hiyoshi glanced up, closing his book. "Choutarou? Why aren't you swimming?"

The larger boy shrugged, sitting down next to Hiyoshi. "It's overrated." Ohtori leaned back on his hands, grinning. "You look like such a nerd."

"I am _not_ a nerd."

Just then, two tiny, strong arms wrapped around Hiyoshi's neck. "Hiyo. Why do you wear a shirt? It's nerdy."

Ohtori gave Hiyoshi a told-you-so look.

Hiyoshi scowled. "Mukahi-san, it's none of your business why I wear a shirt or not. Maybe I have sensitive skin."

Mukahi kept his arms around Hiyoshi's neck, pressing his chest against his back as he rest his head on Hiyoshi's shoulder. "Do you have moobs? You know, man boobs? I bet you do. Only they'd be the muscular kind, not the fat kind. It's okay if you have moobs. Shishido does. Kinda."

"Shishido-san does not have man boobs." Ohtori turned a little bright after he said "boobs." He always had been the innocent one of the team.

"I don't care if he does," Mukahi said, shrugging into Hiyoshi's back. "You'll get hot, you know," he said, reaching down and gripping at the shirt.

Hiyoshi stood up, knocking Mukahi off of him. "I'm going for a walk."

As Hiyoshi walked off, Mukahi tilted his head. Okay, that was weird. Hiyoshi was a weird guy in general, but what was so weird about him taking his shirt off? Was he a girl that snuck into the tennis club? No. Mukahi had seen Hiyoshi change. But, now that he thought about it, ever since he could remember, Hiyoshi always had some sort of undershirt on, and whenever they had team sleepovers, Hiyoshi always had a sleep top. And he was always 'sick' on pool day.

"Why does he do that?" Mukahi asked, glancing at Ohtori as he crawled onto Hiyoshi's blanket.

Ohtori looked confused. "You don't know?"

"Know what?" Mukahi grabbed Hiyoshi's book, looked at the title, rolled his eyes, and set it back down. When Ohtori didn't say anything, Mukahi looked at him. "I don't know _what_, Ohtori?"

Ohtori bit his lip, lying down on his stomach, propping himself up on his elbows, bending his knees, locking his ankles together. "It's not my place to say." Mukahi raised an eyebrow. "It's nothing bad," Ohtori said quickly. "It's just… he has too much pride to admit some things."

"Uh-huh." Mukahi watched as Hiyoshi walked down the lakeside. "Should I be worried?"

"No," Ohtori said, staring out at the lake. "He's your partner. He'll tell you, eventually. When he's ready."

Mukahi nodded. He didn't like the thought of Hiyoshi keeping something from him. He didn't like it at all.

.

Kaidoh was down on the lakeside, a good ways away from the section the rest of the boys were at. He was sitting in the sand, his hands in his lap, his eyes closed, his breathing –

"Viper!"

Kaidoh cracked an eye open, glancing at Momo as he walked in the sand towards him, running a towel through his hair. Kaidoh closed his eye again, hissing. Kaidoh blocked Momo out as he talked, focusing on the water, the sand, the –

"Yo, I'm talking," Momo said, poking Kaidoh in the shoulder.

Kaidoh sighed, curling his toes instead of his fists, reopening his eyes once again and looking at his rival. "What?"

"I was thinking," Momo said, drawing lazy circles in the sand, "when we get back to school, we could hold practice matches with all the second years, and get an idea of who might become regulars."

"And Echizen. He'll become a regular."

Momo's finger froze. "He's been acting differently, nice almost. I think he's trying to butter us up like toast, ya know?"

Kaidoh looked out at the lake, his thoughts drifting off. "I know. Do you think he's going to be captain and is waiting to tell us?"

Momo and Kaidoh looked at each other for a second, and then laughed. Once Momo stopped laughing at the thought of Ryoma yelling 'One hundred laps' in glasses, he smirked.

"That kid is going places, though," Momo said, his finger going back to drawing circles.

"And we aren't?"

Momo shot Kaidoh a look. "We're going better places. Well, at least I am."

Kaidoh snorted, closing his eyes again. "Speak for yourself. I'm not going places; I'm going everywhere... _as captain_."

Momo leaned back on his hands, staring up at the clouds. "I like the sound of that, Viper; I really like the sound of that. But I'm gonna be captain."

"No, I'm going to be captain."

Momo narrowed his eyes, hopping up onto his feet. "First one to swim back to the dock is captain."

Kaidoh stood up, tightening his bandana. "I could beat you even if you were a dolphin."

"Hey, I'd be a badass dolphin. You'd be a… squid!"

"Forty percent of dolphins are gay," Kaidoh added before sprinting towards the water.

Momo rushed after him, fuming with anger, yelling, "Well, squids are icky!"

.

Marui splashed Niou. It was a playful splash, but Niou swam away after the water hit him. Marui didn't think anything of it, until Akaya mumbled "What's his problem?" And then Marui began to think. What _was _his problem? Niou had been acting weird the last few days. Curious, Marui swam after Niou, thankful Akaya didn't follow him.

Niou then swam to the dock, yanking himself up onto the weathered wood. He ran a hand through his ponytail, ringing the water out. Marui swam to the lakeside, grimacing when sand began to sick to his wet feet. He hated that feeling.

Niou spread his towel out, lying on his back, his hands behind his head. The sun felt so good against his damp skin. Or, at least, it did until Marui stood over him, blocking the sun.

Niou glared up at him. "Dude, I'm trying to dry off."

Marui crossed his arms, not really caring. "What's up with you lately?"

Niou stood up, shoving Marui back a foot or two. "Nothing. Mind your own damn business."

Niou turned around, but Marui grabbed onto his wrist. Niou snapped around, nearly punching Marui in the jaw. Marui took a step back, his eyes wide. Niou was taller, more muscular, and downright scary when he was mad.

"I'm going into the woods. Don't follow me."

Niou turned again, storming off into the woods like a drama queen. Part of Niou wanted Marui to follow him. Part of Niou wanted Marui to look him in the eye and ask 'what's wrong?' because then he could say 'I'm fine' and maybe, just maybe, Marui would say 'I know you're not.'

But Marui didn't follow him, and that was all that mattered.

.

Atobe was sitting at a picnic bench, his laptop on the table. Part of him wished he was back at Hyotei, so he would have an umbrella above him and a drink in his hand. But the other part of him liked the feeling of the sun burning his bare back, the heat engulfing his entire body – it made him feel less like a puppet, and more like a human.

Just as he hit the period key, probably a little harder than he needed to, Jirou sat on the table, his feet resting on the small bench you were supposed to sit on. He closed Atobe's laptop for him, sticking his tongue out when Atobe gave him a look.

"Aren't you going swimming?" Jirou asked.

Atobe glanced at the lake over his shoulder, and then turned back around. "With those baboons? They wouldn't know a butterfly from a back stroke."

Jirou smiled, laughing. "You're so _weird_."

It was odd, Jirou thought, talking to Atobe like nothing had happened. But, as far as Atobe was concerned, nothing had happened. That kiss had never happened, Jirou was simply his best friend, and that was all there was to it.

"I am not 'weird,'" Atobe said. "I am simply more civilized than those people."

Jirou jumped off the table, wiggling his toes in the sand. "Well, if you wanna go swimming, come find me. I'll teach you a new stroke."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"Le doggie paddle."

Jirou smiled and Atobe felt his heart skip a beat in a wonderfully cliché way. It wasn't a perfect moment, like in the movies; there was no romantic rain, there were no fireworks, no cheesy background music – but it was enough, just to see him smile.

"Jirou!"

Jirou turned and saw Mukahi waving at him from the dock. Jirou waved back. He smiled at Atobe, and then ran off towards the docks. Atobe began to wonder if Jirou had those stupid, cliché moments.

.

Inui was sitting on a towel, absentmindedly scribbling down notes, when he heard footsteps. He didn't look up, trying to remember whose footsteps they were. He could figure out footsteps normally, which kept him out of trouble, but it was more difficult in the sand, and Inui did love a challenge.

_Too heavy for Kaidoh. Momoshiro? No. Too fast._

Inui looked up, unable to figure out who it was in the sand. "Renji?"

Yanagi smiled, sitting on the bottom of Inui's towel. "Hello, Sadaharu. I would like to get your opinion on some statistics that involve the fate of our high school teams, assuming the majority of the third years continue to play…"

"Sanada and Tezuka?" Inui asked, flipping to a different section of his notebook, sliding his finger down the page and tapping on a certain paragraph. He glanced up at Yanagi, waiting for an answer.

"Yes," Yanagi said, opening up his notebook. "I have a personal bias when examining the situation, and, well, I was wondering if my data differs from yours."

"'There is a ninety six percent chance that Sanada Genchirou will transfer to Seishun Gakuendue to Tezuka Kunimitsu's high evaluations of the high school's physical education program,'" Inui said, reading word for word what he had written. He looked at Yanagi, fixing his glasses. "Does that help at all?"

Yanagi sighed, closing his notebook. "One hundred percent the same."

Inui nodded once, closing his notebook as well. "Have you informed Yukimura that the chance of Sanada transferring will decrease by at least thirty percent if he told Sanada he wanted him to stay at Rikkaidai?"

Yanagi glanced at Yukimura, who was sitting on the dock, his feet dangling in the water. Yanagi looked back at Inui and shook his head. "It's not up to me to decide the outcome of someone's future. If Genchirou wants to transfer to Seigaku in order to farther his education, I have no right to stop him. Besides, Seiichi already despises Tezuka, and it seems that he is developing a hatred for Fuji as well – there is a sixty percent chance that he will tell Genchirou to stay without me saying a thing."

"Thank you for that information," Inui said, reopening his notebook and writing. As he wrote he added, "Are you aware that the captain for Seigaku has been decided, but Tezuka has not informed Momoshiro or Kaidoh?"

"Of course, I'm not slacking just because tournament season is over. It was good talking to you, Sadaharu." Yanagi stood up, a firm grip on his notebook as he turned around and walked away.

.

Mukahi pulled himself out of the lake.

The first thing he noticed was Oshitari was talking on his phone, most likely to Kenya. Oshitari and his cousin always discuss the most random things that made Fuji seem normal, such as clouds, pickles and octopuses. Mukahi figured they were code words, and, if they weren't he didn't really want to know what they were talking about.

The second thing he noticed was that Hiyoshi was sitting on his towel, reading that stupid book. Hiyoshi was always reading a book of some kind, mostly mystery. Mukahi tried to read through one once, but the whole murder-on-the-train thing just confused him.

Mukahi ringed out his hair, looking at Jirou who was still in the water.

"I'm gonna go dry off."

Jirou nodded. "I'm going to stay in for a bit longer."

"'kay."

Mukahi began to walk along the wood, being careful not to slip, and then grimaced as the sand stuck to his wet feet. He sat on the end of Hiyoshi's towel, his knees picking up tiny bits of sand that had somehow gotten on it.

"Hey."

Hiyoshi glanced up from his book. He furrowed his brow as he closed his book. "Mukahi-san…"

"I'm sorry for earlier." Mukahi pressed his lips together. He hated sucking up his pride and apologizing, but he knew he needed to say something or Hiyoshi would hate him. "I didn't know I would upset you by pulling at your shirt. You obviously –"

"Mukahi-san," Hiyoshi cut in, smiling slightly, "I get it. You're sorry."

Mukahi wrinkled his nose and stuck his tongue out, but then he laughed at the thought of how stupid his face looked.

Hiyoshi rolled his eyes. "You're so weird, Mukahi-san."

Mukahi smiled.

.

Yanagi walked over to where Yukimura and Sanada were sitting, sitting next to Sanada.

"Genchirou, Seiichi," Yanagi said formally. "It appears that Sadaharu is also curious about our team's make-up for next year."

Sanada adjusted his cap. "And? Is Seigaku making a line up with me on it?"

"That matters why?" Yukimura asked, a grin on his lips as he nudged Sanada. "We'll kick their asses, yours included, if you go. But I'm pretty sure that it'd be more fun if the 'Three Demons' walk into the Rikkai courts. The sempai will pee their pants, considering what happened the last time we were first years."

"Or, we could send in Fuji," Sanada said.

"With a bazooka," Yukimura added. "That pretty boy is not that scary without some major weaponry."

"If I remember correctly, when he played Niou at Nationals, you turned around and said, 'A thousand yen says Fuji makes Niou piss himself,'" Yanagi said, giving Yukimura a look.

Yukimura stuck his tongue out at Yanagi while Sanada laughed and Yanagi made a mental note to calculate the decrease in percent of Sanada's transferring.

* * *

**A/N: I loved loved loved writing this chapter. Just thought y'all should know :)**

**On a more serious note, updates will be pretty darn random due to, well, a lot of things. Mostly school, but also my other story - Organize Chaos (read it, or else). I'm also working on another story which I have yet to post and don't plan to any time soon (summer, perhaps...), and a one-shot which will be uploaded whenever I finish it. I apologize, but, in the end, I'm the author, so bare with me or leave. It's up to you. If the story goes on a hiatus, I will make an update so y'all know.  
**


	21. Chapter 21

**21.**

They spent the whole day down at the lake.

After a quick dinner, most of the boys retired to their rooms, but a few opted to wonder around the cabin. Outside, Niou and Yagyuu were shooting off the fireworks they had gotten in town, Sanada supervising from the cabin. After two mortars, anyone who was still awake was on the ground outside, staring up at the sky.

They were separated in their teams, which made the captains sigh. It was like the boys didn't even understand that they were supposed to bond and make new relationships that didn't involve murderous intent, not stay in their own cult-like cliques.

"Silver or blue?" Niou asked, squatting in front of a small tube.

Yagyuu shrugged, striking a match. "They're your fireworks, Niou-kun. Not mine. Though, if you do a stream of purple and red, you might be able to tell Marui that this show was for him."

"It isn't for him, though," Niou said, slipping a ball into the tube. "I was going to set the cabin on fire, just for fun, but Sanada over there has a larger stick in his ass than you."

Yagyuu sighed as Niou stood up and took a few steps back. Yagyuu light the wick that was hanging out of the tube, and then took a few steps back to stand next to Niou.

"Niou-kun, you are impossible," Yagyuu said, watching as a silver mortar shot up into the sky.

.

The Hyotei boys were huddled under a large tree. ("I do not trust those baboons with fire," Oshitari had said.) Shishido was lying on his stomach next to Hiyoshi and Ohtori, tilting his head up in the most uncomfortable, unnatural way possible to see the night sky.

"That one looked like a boob," Shishido said off handedly.

"That's disgusting," Hiyoshi said.

"Keep saying things like that and you'll be as openly gay as Mukahi," Shishido said, snorting and ignoring Ohtori's "Shishido-san…"

"Maybe I have a girlfriend," Hiyoshi pointed out casually.

Mukahi laughed loudly from behind them, crawling up to the trio. He wrapped his arms around Hiyoshi's neck, smiling. "If you have a girlfriend, I'll come to practice in my sister's thong."

"Don't," Shishido said, making a face. "And never say 'thong' again."

"Why not? Thong, thong, thong," Mukahi said, louder and louder, even when Shishido got up and walked over to Seigaku, casually starting a conversation with Oishi.

"Thong! THONG! _THO_-"

Hiyoshi wiggled his shoulders enough to knock Mukahi off of him, but not even to hurt him. Even Hiyoshi didn't want to face the wrath of a scorned Mukahi.

"So," Mukahi drew out, wiggling between Hiyoshi and Ohtori to lie down, "_do_ you have a girlfriend?"

"No," Hiyoshi replied with ease. "Girls only gossip. It's boring."

"Come to the dark side," Mukahi whispered with an impish grin. "Well, the gay side."

Hiyoshi sighed. "Let me guess, you have cookies?"

"We have hot sex."

Ohtori cringed. "Ew. Ew. _Ew_."

Mukahi and Hiyoshi looked at each other, and then burst into a loud, obnoxious laughter that overpowered the next mortar as it shot into the sky. Ohtori stared at the two, and then smiled.

_Look, Wakashi, you're smiling again._

.

Back inside the cabin, Atobe was standing on the balcony that was outside of their suite, leaning against the fancy iron rail. Wine glass full of water in hand, Atobe watched the fireworks.

"Atobe?"The French doors opened behind him.

Atobe turned his head around and found himself smiling. Jirou was wearing way-too-big for him pajamas and was rubbing his eye as he yawned.

"Jirou," Atobe said, turning his head back around and taking a sip of water from his glass.

"What's going on?" Jirou asked, waddling like a penguin over to the railing so he didn't trip like an idiot. The last thing he wanted was to look like an idiot in front of Atobe.

"Niou and Yagyuu decided to do a firework show," Atobe said, swirling the water in the glass.

Jirou watched with wide eyes, following the streams of silver and purple that erupted from that little ball in the sky. The next one was green, and then the one after that was red. And then another purple. Then a blue and yellow.

But, despite all those colors and all the people below them, Jirou couldn't keep his eyes off of Atobe.

Jirou bit his lip and grabbed Atobe's arm, shivering.

"Are you alright?" Atobe asked, looking down at the shorter boy as he clinged to his arm. "Jirou?"

"I'm cold," Jirou lied, face red, holding a little tighter to Atobe's arm. _I just want to be close to you._

Atobe pressed his lips together, moving his eyes from Jirou to the fireworks. "Do you want to go back inside?"

Jirou shook his head, eyes following a huge, red mortar as it shot into the sky and exploded. He smiled like a fool and looked up at Atobe, who was looking down at him, waiting for an answer.

In a perfect world, they may have kissed. They may have told each other everything. In a perfect world, they would be together and be happy. But the world wasn't perfect. It would never be perfect. The only thing they could do was hope that the world was good enough, because then they might do something.

"I want to stay here," Jirou said, looking back at the fireworks, letting go of Atobe's arm. He grabbed the railing until his knuckles turned white. "I really just want to stay out here…" _with you._

Atobe smiled, turning back to the fireworks again. "Okay."

* * *

**A/N: No boy alive is this gay. Also, I'm sorry for this chapter being so short.**

**I posted a one-shot last night called "Smile." It's Hiyoshi/Mukahi and my late V-day fic... So, if you like the Hiyoshi/Mukahi thing going on in this story, check it out. **

**Other news: I have a few things I'm working on but don't want to talk much about at the moment. Nothing is definite, but I plan on a multi-chapter Hiyoshi/Mukahi to come up sometime this year, and it might possibly be joined by a supernatural fic and a semi-western fic. Like I said, nothing is definite, and I post and remove stories all the time, but those are what I have planned for this year – that, this story, my other current story Organized Chaos, and a few one-shots thrown in. **

**That's about it. **


	22. Chapter 22

**22.**

Atobe felt… odd.

He set his clothes for the day on the counter of the bathroom, exhausted from a late night of work. After locking the door, Atobe yanked his sleep shirt over his head, setting it on the counter next to the sink. He ran a hand through his hair, looking at himself in a mirror for a second, watching the muscles on his chest rise and fall, just to remind himself that he was alive.

"Another day, another task," Atobe muttered to himself, slipping out of his pants, setting them on the counter. He turned on the water in the shower, sighing as he stepped under it.

He had dreamt about Jirou (again). It wasn't anything particular – they were just talking in a café. It was a strange conversation, and Atobe couldn't remember much of it. But considering what had happened within the past five days, he figured his dreams would be more than just talking. Then again, Atobe did love that about Jirou, just being able to talk to him and have him actually listen.

Atobe turned off the water stepped out of the shower, grabbing a towel from the rack.

_Strange, nobody knocked on the door,_ Atobe thought, dabbing his face with a towel, and then wrapping it around his waist. _Hiyoshi and Jirou take morning showers and they should both be up by now…_

Atobe dried off as quickly as possible without slipping. Tossing the dirty towels and clothes into the basket into the corner, Atobe slipped into his boxers and jeans. He looked at his chest rise and fall for another moment before tugging on a brown, skin tight sweater.

Atobe walked into the living area of the suite, rolling his shoulders. The bedroom doors were open, but the boys weren't anywhere to be seen. Confused, Atobe walked down the hall, and realized why no one was in the suite – almost everyone was in the lounge. Half of the boys were in front of the window, and the other half were in front of the TV, including Jirou, who still seemed half asleep.

"What's going on?" Atobe asked, walking up to Tezuka.

Tezuka simply nodded to the TV.

Atobe hated how Tezuka never spoke unless he needed to; he seemed too heartless like that. Why couldn't he have a normal rival?

Atobe turned to look at the TV, crossing his arms as he listened to the weather. After a moment, he turned his attention back to Tezuka.

"Thunderstorms?" Atobe asked, raising an eyebrow. "People are gawking at the television because of _thunderstorms_? They do have brains, correct?"

"Yes, they do," Tezuka said. "And, apparently, scattered storms have been reported across the mountains. Just before you came, the weather man was saying that it'd be safer to stay inside and to stay away from windows."

Yukimura, appearing out of goddamn nowhere, nodded in agreement. "I believe it would be safer to stay indoors, just for today."

Atobe sighed, glancing at the boys who were huddled around the window._ Great, half of them are going to die because they had to look out the damn windows like monkeys!_

"Do you think we should call Sakaki-san and Ryuzaki-san?" Yukimura asked. "I mean, we were supposed to have a picnic, but I don't think being lightening rods was part of their instructions."

Atobe sighed again. "Tezuka, you call Ryuzaki; I'll call Sakaki. Yukimura, you do whatever it is you do. We will make an announcement at breakfast; tell those apes to get away from the windows," Atobe said, walking off.

Yukimura rolled his eyes, and then turned to join the boys that were huddled around the TV.

Tezuka walked down the stairs, phone in hand.

Atobe pinched the bridge of his nose, focusing on what he was going to say to Sakaki.

.

At breakfast, Atobe and the other captains made the announcement that they would be having a movie marathon starting a two. Half way through the meal, Atobe snuck off into the kitchen to talk to Tora, the chef.

"Keigo-kun!" Atobe stiffened when her arms wrapped around him. When she released him, she asked, "What do you need? Is breakfast alright?"

Atobe explained the situation with the movies, and asked if it would be possible to have a dozen pizzas made and possibly some finger foods rather than a full dinner.

"That should be alright," Tora said. "Did you eat breakfast? You look… ill."

Atobe smiled politely. "It was wonderful," he lied. He had a dozen or so things he needed to take care of before the movie marathon, another five or so for the picnic that was rescheduled for tomorrow, weather pending – that was more important than eating at the moment.

Tora obviously didn't believe this, but didn't question him. "I'll make a light lunch. Take care of yourself; you're still a child, Keigo."

Atobe nodded, and turned on his heels to go upstairs and work.

.

No one bothered Atobe, what with his bedroom door locked. He worked diligently for hours until Kabaji knocked on his door to tell him that it was two. Atobe, not believing all that time had passed, looked at the time on his laptop.

_It's two and I still have work,_ Atobe thought with a sigh, closing his laptop.

Atobe set his laptop on his dresser as he walked towards the door. He opened it, walking around Kabaji to leave the suite. He must have been one of the last boys in the lounge, because all of the beanbags were filled, all the chairs were moved, and at least three pizzas were completely finished. Bags of chips and opened soda cans made it hard for Atobe to navigate the area, but he eventually found a seat that Kabaji had saved for him.

One problem.

He was between Jirou and Oshitari.

_Lovely._

After a ten minute explanation on how to work the DVD player, Jackal managed to put in a DVD and turn it on. As Tezuka turned off the lights, Atobe caught sight of Oshitari and wanted to groan. Oshitari was far more interested in Mukahi at the moment than the credits on the screen.

"Atobe," Jirou whispered, "we could switch seats, if they make you uncomfortable."

"I'm fine, but thank you, Jirou," Atobe said, focusing on the movie, pretending like Oshitari wasn't staring at him as he kissed Mukahi.

.

Half way through the second movie, it was pouring rain. Atobe's skin crawled, and Jirou glanced at him, but Atobe didn't say anything. When the first bolt of lightning pierced the sky, Atobe jumped.

"Scared?" Oshitari asked, chuckling.

Atobe ignored him.

Ten minutes later, the thunder and lightning was even worse. Atobe stood up, saying, "I have things to do. I'll be in my room, if you need anything."

Atobe walked off, and a few minutes later, Jirou heard Oshitari ask Mukahi, "Should I make sure he's okay?"

Mukahi rested his head on Oshitari's shoulder. "He's probably just reporting to Sakaki. Or jerking off. He'll be fine."

Jirou wasn't sure why, but he was glad that Oshitari dropped it. Mukahi was smiling and laughing, but Oshitari seemed bored. Jirou never realized that until lately, and it scared him.

.

"This is so stupid," Marui whispered as he crawled next to Niou. "Those two won't stop making out."

"Don't tell me you're a homophobe," Niou said. "We play tennis. Just be happy no one is trying to finger your ass right now."

"Why, do I have a nice ass?" Marui asked, joking.

"Yes," Niou said, not joking.

Marui laughed, lying down next to Niou, bending his elbows to rest his chin in his palms. They watched the movie, whispered to each other about nothing, laughing at the movie's stupid jokes, slowly getting closer and closer.

It was as though they were oblivious to the fact that they both loved each other, or simply refused to believe it because it scared the hell out of them.

.

Ryoma leaned up against the wall, moving his legs in a restless sort of way as he watched the movie. He reached over Momo's legs, grabbing a can of soda.

"Hey, keep it next to you," Momo said, swatting Ryoma's hand away from his groin.

"I have no intentions of feeling you up, sempai," Ryoma said. "I'm straight, in case you haven't noticed."

"Of course I've noticed," Momo said. "When Sakuno-chan comes around, you always tug your cap down because you're blushing."

"Shut up," Ryoma mumbled, taking a sip of his soda, turning his attention back to the movie.

.

Ohtori poked Hiyoshi during a boring scene. Hiyoshi made a noise in return, his eyes closed from boredom and fatigue.

"Why didn't you tell Mukahi-sempai about, well, you know?" Ohtori asked.

Hiyoshi's eyes snapped open like a rubber band, landing on Ohtori. "It's none of his business."

"But he seems worried about it…"

"Choutarou," Hiyoshi said firmly, "drop it. _Please_."

Ohtori nodded, watching the movie, not saying another word to Hiyoshi for the rest of the night.

.

Jirou stood up without saying a word, making his way back to the suite. He wasn't sure why, but he felt like checking on Atobe. As he opened the door, he flinched as the thunder crashed. He walked by Atobe's room, and knocked on the door.

"Atobe, you need anything? You didn't eat any pizza… Are you sick or something?"

_If Mukahi is right and he's jerking off, I will die. _

Jirou opened the door. To his pleasure (and displeasure) he didn't see Atobe doing anything. In fact, he couldn't see anything. The room was dark, filled with the soft sound of classical music that filled Atobe's ipod.

"Atobe?" Jirou's voice was barely above a whisper as he walked over to the bed, where he vaguely made out a lump in the dark. The lightning flashed again outside, lighting up the room for a brief second. Jirou fumbled but managed to hit the switch on the lamp on the nightstand. With the light on, Jirou definitely saw a blanket-covered lump on the bed that was Atobe-shaped.

"Are you okay?"

Jirou sat on the edge of the bed, and touched what he hoped was Atobe's shoulder. When he didn't get a response, he gently tugged the blanket down. Atobe had his eyes screwed shut and his headphones in his ears.

"Atobe?" Jirou pulled a headphone out. All of the sudden, Atobe sat up, his face extremely close to Jirou's. "A-Atobe? A-a-a-are you okay?"

Atobe stared at Jirou for a moment, and then shook his head. Without another word, Atobe lied back down and pulled the sheet up. Jirou sat there, listening to the classical music and watching Atobe flinch whenever there was a bolt of lightning.

_Since when is he afraid of thunder? After that huge storm last year, he did miss a few days of school…_

"Don't worry, Atobe. I'm here, so just sleep, okay?"

Atobe forced his eyes closed, not seeming to care that the light was still on. Jirou moved a pillow around, closing his eyes as he whispered "good night, Keigo."

.

_Atobe flet like he was frozen in time, frozen in pain. Something hit him, right around his waist, and he fell to his knees._

_The lightning blinked in the distance._

_His father looked to his wife, who was in the corner, terror plastered on her face. He took a step towards her, and Atobe stood up._

_The thunder laughed a spine chilling roar._

_Atobe hit the ground again. His father spat off to the site, looked to his wife, and then left the room._

_The rain danced against the roof in agony and pain._

_His mother ran over to Atobe, running her fingers along the red marks on his cheek. "Keigo, I'm sorry." _

_Everything went dark like the sky._

.

Atobe sat up, feeling an odd weight on him. Jirou had an arm slung over his stomach, and there was a drool stain on his sleeve. Atobe's mind focused, and he remembered that Jirou had stayed with him last night. In a bed.

Atobe lied back down, staring up at the ceiling. Jirou rested his head on his shoulder, and in that moment, Atobe couldn't care less about work, about his nightmare, about anything. It confused him, but being with Jirou made him calm.

* * *

**A/N: I am desperately trying to keep this story similar to Love's Weird Like That, but good God, I was a shitty writer when I wrote that. **


	23. Chapter 23

**23.**

Jirou didn't know what to expect when he woke up.

He expected Atobe not to be there, for starters. Maybe a note telling him that he didn't feel the same way, but hoped that they could be friends. Maybe it had all been a dream – Atobe Keigo couldn't possibly be afraid of thunder storms.

The last thing he expected was for Atobe to be asleep, inches away from him.

"Atobe," Jirou groaned, waking up, moving away from Atobe. "Wake up. I think it's morning."

Atobe grabbed Jirou's shoulder, pulling his back into his chest. "Sleep. Then food. Then more sleep."

Jirou laughed. "Atobe, come on, let go, you sound drunk and improper, it's very unfitting of you."

Atobe opened his eyes, saw how close he had just made them, and rolled off the bed, taking Jirou with him. Atobe was on his back on the floor with Jirou on top of him. He officially hated cliché movies.

"Are you okay?" Jirou asked, getting off of Atobe. "I heard a crack. Is your head bleeding? Are you going to die?"

"No," Atobe said with a smile. He sat up and looked at Jirou. "I'm going to get a shower. Last night never happened."

Jirou watched silently as Atobe gathered some clothes and left the room. When the door closed, Jirou groaned, falling back onto his back. _What the heck is wrong with Atobe? What the heck is wrong with me?_

Atobe walked over to the bathroom, clothes in hands. As he reached for the door knob, Hiyoshi opened up the door from the other side as he ran a towel through his wet hair. He was wearing a robe, and Atobe didn't move, his mind drifting back to when Jirou had walked in on him in the bathroom.

"Uh, Buchou, could you move?" Hiyoshi asked, tightening his robe.

Atobe nodded and moved slightly so Hiyoshi could walk by. Hiyoshi took two steps, and then said, "What's wrong with everyone? Mukahi-san got drunk, Jirou-sempai isn't taking naps anymore, and you're working your ass off."

_Oh, yes, Mukahi was getting drunk who his boyfriend who came up to me afterwards because he couldn't get his rocks off himself. And I'm too busy to realize that Jirou isn't taking naps because I want to jump him every time I see him, and Sakaki is working me like a mosquito in a nudist colony while I deal with my mother's surgeries, which wouldn't be necessary if my father didn't beat us whenever he was mad._

Yeah, like that would work.

Atobe simply shrugged. "How should I know? I'm not in charge of them."

"You're our captain."

Atobe had the urge to tell Hiyoshi to shut the hell up and go do whatever he does with Ohtori and Kirihara or whoever he hands out with, because he was not in the mood.

"In a few weeks, you'll be captain. Here's a practice task: go be useful and find Tezuka and Yukimura. I need to discuss the plans for the picnic."

Hiyoshi nodded, mumbled something, and said, "After I get dressed."

Atobe didn't say anything else. He went into the bathroom to get a long, cold shower, hoping that he didn't think about his best friend.

.

Hiyoshi changed quickly, setting his damp robe on his dresser, grabbing his phone and his ipod off his dresser before leaving the suite altogether. He walked down a hallway, knocking on what he thought was Yukimura's door. He kept knocking until someone opened the door. Someone being a very pissed off, just woken up captain.

"What?" Yukimura hissed. "I'm not a morning person, and if one of your idiot teammates put you up to pissing me off, you'll have a number of things shoved into many uncomfortable places."

Hiyoshi raised an eyebrow. That was one of the more colorful threats he had ever received.

"Atobe wants to talk to you, something about a picnic," Hiyoshi said.

Yukimura rolled his eyes and shut the door.

_And he wonders why everyone says he put the 'dic' in dictator._

.

Hiyoshi went to what he thought was Tezuka's room next, but ended up knocking on the wrong door. He apologized to a not-so-happy Niou, and tried the next door. He decided that if he opened the door and another angry Rikkaidai opened up that Atobe could find Tezuka himself.

However, it was a bubbly Eiji who opened the door, yanking Hiyoshi into their suite. Oishi was sitting on the sofa, drinking a cup of coffee while Eiji shoved him down onto the sofa.

"I was just here to tell Tezuka that Atobe wants to talk to him –"

"TEZUKA!" Eiji yelled, bouncing over to a bedroom door.

Oishi sighed and gave Hiyoshi an apologetic look. "He drank my coffee thinking it was his grape juice. He has problems with caffeine."

"Yeah, I don't really care, I just want to get out before he comes back," Hiyoshi said bluntly.

Oishi gestured towards the door, mumbled a "sorry," and watched a terrified Hiyoshi rushed out of the room.

.

Atobe was in the lounge with his laptop when Yukimura and Tezuka showed up. Atobe set his laptop aside, explaining the list of food and drinks the chef was preparing for the trip. Yukimura mentioned that it was muddy from the rain, and that if Atobe could find some tubes, they could go tubing.

"That seems like a good idea," Tezuka said. "We could split into teams and hold races."

Yukimura smiled. "I like that idea. How about we do it before the picnic? Spinning in mud is bound to make someone upchuck. What do you think, Atobe?"

Atobe wanted to say 'no.' He didn't want to be covered in mud, but he knew that most of the boys would love the chance to get dirty, though he couldn't understand why. Atobe agreed with a sigh, and the other captains left.

Atobe grabbed his laptop and retreated to the comfort of his bedroom. Jirou wasn't here – _he's probably at breakfast_, Atobe thought. However, when Atobe set his laptop on his dresser, he heard the door open, shut, and lock.

"Atobe."

Atobe turned around, narrowing his eyes. "Oshitari, get out," he ordered.

Oshitari ignored him, taking a step forward for each step Atobe took back. Within seconds, Atobe's back was against the wall. When Oshitari tilted his head, Atobe ducked and rushed for the door, but Oshitari was faster. He grabbed Atobe's wrist, spinning him around so his back was against the wall.

"Atobe, don't run, it's not fun," Oshitari said, grinning. He pressed his lips against Atobe's. Atobe felt his knees go weak. It was different from his kiss with Jirou. Jirou's lips were tiny, like a girl's, and it was soft, comforting, loving. This kiss was rough, full of lust – it meant nothing, and it made Atobe's empty stomach turn.

Then someone knocked on the door. Oshitari pulled away for a second, eyes locked on Atobe's.

"Atobe? Can we talk now?"

Atobe's throat went dry. "Jirou?"

He heard a sigh and another knock. "Yeah, it's me. I'm going for a jog with some guys, and I want to talk to you about something."

Oshitari placed his lips on the crook of Atobe's neck, gently sucking. Atobe tried to jerk free of Oshitari's grip, but he couldn't. He never could.

"Jirou, we'll talk later."

"Atobe," Jirou said desperately, "it's important. It's about last night. It's about, well, this whole camp. You haven't been yourself, and I'm scared."

Oshitari pulled his head back, smirking. "Keigo? Why won't you talk to me?" Oshitari asked softly in Jirou's voice.

Atobe groaned. "Jirou, leave me alone!"

Jirou was silent for a moment. "Fine. Tell me that I can tell you anything, and then push me away when I try to help you."

"Jir –"

Oshitari kissed Atobe, hard, as they listened to Jirou's footsteps.

They never had sex – when they were together, or now. But they were still too close, too intimate for two people who didn't love each other. Oshitari spoke in Jirou's voice, whispering "Keigo" as he kissed him, touched him, did unspeakable things to him. It was just a game to Oshitari.

.

"Hurry up, Marui, Akutagawa!" Sanada yelled from the front of the pack.

When Jirou said "jogging with some guys" he meant "me and the Spartastic a-holes of Rikkaidai." Jirou knew they were hardcore when it came to training – how else could they win two straight Nationals? – but this was ridiculous. Their jog was equivalent to sprinting like a mad dog was chasing them.

"How do you deal with this?" Jirou asked as he ran up to where Niou was, Marui right behind him. Niou wasn't even sweating. _Good grief._

"He's not that bad of a guy," Niou said, referring to Yukimura. "He's strict as hell and I want to kill him, but he's true to his word."

"Niou-kun," Yagyuu said from Niou's side, "don't you think flattering Yukimura will only make your situation with him and Sanada worse?"

Niou shrugged. "They both hate me right now."

Suddenly, things became very awkward. So awkward someone cut have cut the tension with a knige.

"So, huh, Sanada and Yukimura?" Jirou said nervously.

"_Yeeeah_," Niou drew out. "I went and pissed off Buchou by mentioning that Seigaku has a better athletics program than our school. Sanada is going to take over his family's dojo once he's done university, but he needs to be in the best physical shape to do so. So –"

"So," Marui interrupted, "when Sanada heard that Seigaku has a good athletics program – meaning he can get into a university with an awesome program – Sanada jumped at the chance. Now Sanada's been all buddy-buddy with Tezuka, and Yukimura's pissed."

Jirou frowned. That was news to him. He usually picked up on things like that. Not all the details, but on people acting differently. He was too busy thinking about Atobe to realize anyone else wasn't acting like their usual selves.

The rest of their jog was finished in silence, unless you count Yukimura yelling for them to hurry up. When they got back to the cabin, all they wanted to do was take a shower, get some food, and sleep. But that wasn't going to happen. The second they got back, Momo and Eiji practically pushed them right back out.

"Is it time for the picnic already?" Yukimura asked, looking at his watch.

Tezuka nodded. "Atobe and his team are already heading down towards the hill where the picnic is being held."

Yukimura nodded, motioning for his team (and Jirou) to follow. They all groaned as they dragged their feet.

"Are you okay?" Marui asked Jirou.

Jirou shrugged. "Nothing I can't handle. I just need to talk to Atobe."

"Oh." Marui frowned. "Did something happen?"

"N-no!" Jirou said quickly. "He just, I just, we just –"

"What?" Marui asked, nudging Jirou's side with his elbow.

"I slept in his bed last night," Jirou said softly. "I mean, I've done that before, at training camps and stuff, but it was different. He was terrified, and all I could do was sit there. I'm worried, Marui, and I don't know what to do."

"I don't know what to tell you."

"You like Kirihara, don't you? How did you know?" Jirou asked. "I've only ever been with girls, and I just don't know anymore."

Kirihara. Yeah, that was what he told people.

"Well," Marui said, rubbing his neck, "there's a little more to it than that… The whole thing is rather complicated."

"Niou?" Jirou said, smiling. Marui turned red. "I may be losing my touch, but you two are as obvious as a neon sign."

"Don't tell him. Pretend I like Akaya. Please," Marui begged quietly.

"Why?"

"Because," Marui said, sighing, "Niou's my best friend. My _straight _best friend. I care about him too much to risk ruining that friendship."

Jirou felt like he was looking in a mirror.

.

When they got down to the hill, Yukimura quickly explained what was going on. They were to split into teams in groups of five, and whoever won would get bragging rights or something of the sort.

"Teams?" Oishi said, uncertain. He liked the idea, but he just didn't think the I'll-kill-you spirit some of the boys were known for would be a good thing.

Tezuka nodded. "Yes. You'll need a name as well."

They separated into groups, most of them by their regular teams. Jirou was in a group with Marui, Niou, Akaya and Jackal. He glanced over at Atobe, who was in a group with Oshitari, Mukahi and Kabaji. He didn't look back at Jirou, so the blonde tried to focus on their game/race/exercise/pointless activity.

Marui snapped his fingers. "Jirou!"

Jirou looked up. "What?"

"What do you think of the name?"

"… what name?"

The Rikkaidai boys groaned. "Team Bad Asses!" they said.

Jirou couldn't help but smile. "Okay."

There was something odd about knowing that, in a few minutes, they would be covered in mud, laughing, and everything would seem normal, but be completely different. Jirou didn't like that odd feeling. He wanted things to _be_ normal, not to seem normal. He wanted to talk to Atobe, not to be ignored.

* * *

**A/N: Since my last update, I have posed two one-shots. One is Niou/Marui called _True Colors_, and the other is Kirihara/Hiyoshi called _Something Stupid._ Leave me a review?**


	24. Chapter 24

**24.**

They were covered in mud.

The self proclaimed Team Bad Asses were still gushing over their victory as they walked down to the lake where the picnic was set up. There were five blankets laid out on the sand, another one on the picnic table, and each blanket had its own basket.

"We're all muddy," Momo commented, stating the obvious as he pulled at his T-shirt. Then he smirked, pulling his shirt up over his head and his pants down. He sprinted down the docks, doing a cannonball into the lake.

Boy after boy began to strip, though several decided to stay on the lakeside. "Several" being Inui, Yanagi, Hiyoshi, and Atobe. Inui and Yanagi talked, exchanging data. Somehow, the data masters were barely covered in mud, but no one asked how, because they would probably give some physics related explanation that made no sense.

The picnic was amazing, and the boys didn't go back up until the cabin until the sun began to set. Momo and Eiji had started singing Disney songs, Hiyoshi was carrying Mukahi up on his back (because Oshitari said it would be fine to leave him down by the lake and refused to carry him), Ohtori was wearing Shishido's cap (just to see him jump and swear for it), and Sanada was talking to Tezuka.

It was all so normal.

It was all so strange.

.

A large group of boys were hanging out in the second floor lounge, just goofing off. Hiyoshi was sitting in the corner (literally) with Ohtori when Mukahi came over.

"What are you two second years up to?" Mukahi asked. He sat down next to Hiyoshi, looking at the two with a grin. Mukahi only wore that grin after he had sex with Oshitari, and when things were about to go very bad for everyone but Mukahi.

"Nothing, sempai," Ohtori said, smiling back, completely innocent and unknowing; unlike Hiyoshi, who was watching Mukahi like a hawk.

"Really? You two are boring." Mukahi glanced around, as though someone – _Oh. He took something_, Hiyoshi realized.

As if to prove his point, seconds later, someone came storming over. Ohtori and Hiyoshi had to look twice to realize it was Sanada without his cap. He held out his hand, and Mukahi frowned, pulling a hat out of goddamn nowhere and handing it to the Rikkaidai vice-captain. Sanada walked off with a frown.

"I knew I should have taken Shishido's instead," Mukahi said before he sighed.

_I will never understand him_, Hiyoshi decided.

.

Eiji sighed, sinking into a chair next to the one Oishi was sitting in. Oishi frowned, concern crossing his face. "What's wrong, Eiji?"

Eiji smiled. "Nothing. Just tiiiired. I feel like I could pass out any second."

"Then go to sleep," Oishi suggested.

"I'm physically tired, not mentally. Does that make sense?"

Oishi hesitated. "No, not really."

Eiji sighed. "Like, my body is tired, but my mind is racing, like I don't want this night to end."

"Why don't you want it to end?" Oishi asked, curious.

Eiji shrugged. "I dunno. 'Cause we're not gonna be together next year? The teams are all splitting. I know we don't get along, but it's going to suck."

"We can still talk."

"It won't be the same."

"I don't understand, Eiji."

"We're not going to be together! All of us! The teams, the rivals! We're going to drift apart."

Oishi looked so desperately confused in that moment. "We can talk. You know that. We won't fall apart."

"Yes, we will. We all will. And I don't want to."

Eiji was simple. His actions were simple, as were most of his thoughts. But, sometimes, Oishi couldn't understand him, no matter how many ways that simple boy rephrased his words.

.

Marui sat in a bean bag with Jirou, turning his neck every which way to watch Niou play pool with Shishido.

Jirou nudged him. "Just tell him. I bet you'll feel better."

"Why don't you just tell Atobe?" Marui asked softly.

Not softly enough.

Jirou nudged him with his elbow, hard, all the blood in his body going to his cheeks. "I-I… it's complicated, Marui."

Marui shrugged. "I bet you'll feel better."

"It's different for me and Atobe, okay? I can say that about you and Niou because you two can actually be together!"

"And you can't be with Atobe?" Marui asked, raising his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

"Niou looks at you like you look at him. Stop pretending to like Kirihara, and tell Niou," Jirou said, avoiding Marui's question.

"And why can't you tell Atobe?"

"Because he can't even find five seconds to talk to me or ask how I'm doing. He treats me the same way he always has, like a friend. He probably knows I like him, too. Him and his stupid insight…"

Jirou pulled his legs into his chest, resting his head on his knees. He looked so unexplainably sad and hopeless that it nearly broke Marui's heart in two.

"I'm sorry," Marui said softly.

Jirou lifted his head and smiled – fake and big, the Hyotei way. "I'm fine. I'm stronger than I act."

Marui smiled – real and true, the Rikkaidai way. "Okay. Just know I'm here for you."

"I know." Jirou stood up, stretching his arms above his head. He hummed, setting his arms down. "I think I'm gonna head to bed for the night."

"Don't let the bed bugs bite," Marui said as Jirou left the lounge. When he was out of sight, he turned his head. Not to look at Niou, but to look for Atobe.

.

Atobe was down in the first floor lounge on the sofa, staring at the fire in the fireplace flicker back and forth. His laptop sat next to him, long forgotten. He lied down on the sofa, his muscles melting. He was starving, tired, alone – so many things, yet he didn't care because there was nothing he could do.

Work came first, no matter what. Food and sleep and best friends were too much to worry about when he already had so much hanging over his head. If one more thing was added to that weight, he was positive he would snap. When he heard Marui say, "Atobe," he was sure that this was that extra weight.

Atobe sat up, glaring at Marui, who was standing in front of the fireplace. "What?"

"Stop stringing Jirou along," Marui said bluntly. "I said I would break your neck if you hurt him, and you are. I know you like him, and you know he likes you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Atobe lied. His head was starting to hurt, like someone put razors in his skull and shook his head.

Marui let out a frustrated sigh. "If you go out with Jirou, you'll have to break up with him one day, because you need to make daddy happy. You need to marry some pretty little girl and have pretty little babies for your stupid, pretty little image. So don't play with him, because you're only going to hurt him."

"You're insane."

"No, _you _are," Marui said, trying not to shout. Everyone was upstairs or in bed, and he didn't want an audience. "Stop playing with him! He thinks you can't be together because you're best friends. He doesn't realize that you can't date guys seriously. He thinks because you screwed around with Oshitari –"

"How do you know that?"

" – that you can date guys! Oh, and I know. You think Yanagi gets data only on your tennis skills? You're an even bigger idiot than I thought. The one thing Yanagi could never figure out is if you two had sex. Does Jirou know if you did?"

"Go away. Now." Marui didn't move. Atobe stood up, hands balled into fists. "_Get out!"_

Marui took a step to the side, away from Atobe. "I don't get why Jirou likes you. He deserves more than you."

"Get your head out of your ass. Maybe then you'll realize that I don't give a damn if you know about Oshitari and me, about what we were. I can string Jirou along all I want. I can do _whatever_ I want. My father doesn't control my life. _You_ don't control my life!"

Atobe didn't know whether he was lying to Marui to get him to leave, or if he was lying to himself to keep him from losing his mind. Part of Atobe realized that Marui was right. That even if some miracle happened and Jirou and he were together, they wouldn't last.

Marui took another step back, and then made a beeline for the stairs.

Atobe waited until his footsteps faded, and pressed his palms against his temples. He couldn't keep playing with Jirou. But he couldn't manage to just be friends with him. He could never be just friends with Jirou. But he couldn't lose his rock, the one person in the world he treated him like a human.

Atobe left the lounge, heading into the empty kitchen. He crossed the room, heading straight towards the cabinet where the wine was. He grabbed the first bottle he saw, slamming the cabinet door shut. He opened up drawer after drawer, looking for a corkscrew opener. Silverware inside the drawers clattered as he yanked them open and shoved them shut.

He finally found what he was looking for, and violently took the cork out of the bottle. He leaned against the counter behind him, the edge digging into his hips – he didn't care. The only thing he cared about was putting the bottle to his lips and forgetting. Forgetting what Marui had said. Forgetting Jirou. Forgetting the world.

_Calm down, Keigo. _

The wine tasted different than what he was used to, stronger. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. His father, Oshitari, school… it was all so pointless in that moment. Jirou was the only thing on his mind, not that Atobe wanted him to be. But after every sip, the blonde was still on his mind.

"Atobe, you know you just turn me on when you drink."

Atobe moved the bottle away from his lips, letting out a long, ragged breath. He watched silently as Oshitari walked over to him, hips swaying. Neither said anything when Oshitari pressed himself up against Atobe, taking the bottle of wine from the heir.

"Half a bottle that quickly? Did something happen?" He reached behind Atobe, setting it on the counter. Atobe didn't say anything. Oshitari tilted his head to the side. "Atobe?"

"Be him," Atobe said softly, wrapping his arms around Oshitari's torso. "Use his voice. Say my name. Touch me like he would_._"

"Why should I? I offered to do that once, and you said no."

"I want him, and I can't have him, but I can have you because I don't give a damn if I hurt you. So just be him, and fucking touch me! We both win, right?" Atobe asked, digging his nails into Oshitari's skin. "Be Jirou, even if it's only for tonight."

Oshitari smiled, putting his hands on Atobe's hips. "Alright, Keigo," he whispered, his voice higher, softer. Atobe closed his eyes. Atobe stuck his neck out, kissing Oshitari, losing himself. Oshitari pressed harder into the kiss, whispering "Keigo" over and over in Jirou's soft voice. If Atobe didn't look, if he imagined the hands on his hips were smaller, it was Jirou.

It didn't matter anymore because nothing made sense, and if nothing makes sense, then nothing could go wrong.

* * *

**A/N: I've been busy, I've been taking AP tests, I've been taking the SATs, I've been focusing on "Organized Chaos" and I've been writing a new AU-story which will not be posted until it is finished. Take your pick of excuses.**

**Also, updates are going to be extremely slow and may not happen until my summer vacation, which is mid-June. I'm busy as H-E-double-hockey-sticks. This story will be updated eventually, I promise. Just hang with me guys. **


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